Standard and Poors (S&P) have today affirmed its credit rating on Accent Group as ‘A’, with a stable outlook.
This reaffirmation by S&P is a strong endorsement of Accent and our strategic ambitions to deliver improvements to homes and services at pace to meet our customers’ needs in a period of continued volatility for the sector.
As a national organisation with around 21,000 homes based in the north, east and south of the country, S&P notes that “Accent’s management has adequate skills and expertise to manage the group's diversity and scale of operations”, despite the current pressures of the operating environment. It adds that the Group’s strategy “remains focussed on improving the quality of its existing and new homes. This is evidenced in about 82% of the stock already meeting or exceeding Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C standards, which is relatively more favourable than sector peers, and the Group's commitment to deliver all new land-led home developments to EPC A standards.”
Paul Dolan, CEO at Accent, comments: “This outcome pays testament to the strength of our corporate strategy, financial resilience, and the strong governance and leadership in place at Accent. This affords us the ability to continue with our significant development programme building sustainable homes in areas of high housing need and retrofitting current properties to meet the government’s decarbonisation targets.”
Paul continues, “As we continue to see the financial tension on the capacity of our sector and the financial challenges faced by our customers, our focus on delivering high-quality core services, continued investment in our current homes and maintaining an ambitious development strategy ensures we can serve the needs of our customers both now and in the future. This rating demonstrates how we are equipped to remain agile in a changing world.”
