The Hounslow Council Shareholder Committee met to discuss the performance and efficiency of the Hounslow Companies, including the Lampton Group. The committee was scheduled to review the financial performance of the Hounslow Companies for the year 2024/25 and consider ways to improve their efficiency in 2025/26. They were also scheduled to discuss the minutes of the previous meeting.

Hounslow Companies Performance Outturn 2024/25

The Shareholder Committee was scheduled to review the pre-audit financial performance of the Lampton Group of companies for 2024/25. The report pack included a table that showed the provisional outturn, budget, and variance against budget for each of the Lampton Group companies.

The report pack noted that the full year provisional outturn as at 31 March 2025 for Lampton group was broadly consistent with the position forecast in the Q3 reporting to Shareholder Committee, a provisional loss of £6.1m (£6.2m Q3). The budget assumed a loss of £1.2m from transformational spending, so the forecast for year-end is an adverse position against budget of £4.9m.

The report pack also noted the following points:

• Lampton 360 Ltd's outturn position was £0.4m better than budget and £1.4m better than forecast at Q3, driven by the release of over accrued costs from the prior year and the release of a corporate contingency built into the budget position.
• Lampton Recycle 360 Ltd outperformed budget and the Q3 forecast by £0.2m, driven by lower costs than expected.
• Lampton GreenSpace 360 Ltd delivered to the budget, making a loss of £0.2m.
• Coalo Ltd ended the year with a loss of £3.3m, which is £2.1m adverse to budget and a £0.6m adverse movement from the Q3 forecast. The loss of £3.3m is driven by a budgeted loss of £1.2m due to the cost of transformation, additional transformation costs of £1.5m.
• Lampton Investment 360 Ltd's outturn was a loss of £3.4m against a break even budget and is an adverse movement of £0.8m from the forecast presented in the Q3 report. The full year position is a result of rents being lower than budgeted by £0.8m, due to slower letting of new units, delays to applying rent uplifts and market rent conditions.

The report pack stated that Lampton Development 360 LLP completed the New Road Triangle development of 176 units, with the council acquiring 124 units and Lampton Investment 360 Ltd 52 units. The company is reporting a loss of £0.1m for 2024/25.

The report pack also highlighted the risk of FR0004 Financial exposure to Lampton Group of companies which was recorded as Medium High Risk on the Hounslow corporate risk register¹.

The report pack stated that the Executive Director of Finance and Resources had agreed to extend cash flow support to the Group to ensure that its staff and creditors can be paid and that vital services are not interrupted. It also noted that Lampton Group would need an additional cash advance of £4.6m to support its activities in 2025/26.

The report pack also noted that Lampton Development 360 LLP is carrying c£2m of feasibility costs on 4 sites that have not yet secured planning permission.

Hounslow Companies Efficiencies 2025-26

The Shareholder Committee was scheduled to note the ongoing work of the Lampton Group of companies to identify, track, and deliver efficiencies to improve the 2025/26 financial performance reported in the Business Plan and to note ongoing work in formalising the Medium-Term Financial Plan.

The report pack stated that the Lampton Group Executive had identified several proposals across the Group focussing primarily on those that will have an impact on the 2025/26 financial performance, and that medium term proposals and particularly those that will require further resource to deliver have also been captured and will form part of the Medium-Term Financial Plan.

The proposals identified have been categorised against both income generation and cost savings and through five elements: commissioned services, Group overhead, Investment structure, the Facility Agreement, increasing turnover and commercial growth.

The report pack stated that commissioned works through the council to the Group are being reviewed through the update of contractual arrangements and ensuring the appropriate pricing mechanisms are in place for both the council and Group for the delivery of the services, and that work is underway to maximise the performance of the Lampton Investment 360 Limited (“I360”) portfolio following the insourcing of the management of the portfolio from a third party in April 2024.

The report pack also noted that external legal advisors are being engaged to advise on any proposed changes to the Facility agreement, and this will include a consideration of the rules on subsidy control².

Minutes of the Shareholder Committee Meeting held on 2 April 2025

The Shareholder Committee was scheduled to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 2 April 2025. The minutes recorded that Robin Porter would be joining as Director of Lampton 360 Limited and Chair of the Lampton Group Board in May 2025. Robert Meldrum, Director of Finance, presented a report on the Hounslow Companies Performance Q3, 2024/25. The minutes noted that the New Road Triangle project had been completed, there was an improved working relationship with COALA and Lampton, Greenspace won an award for community outreach projects, Recycle and Leisure had strong performance, and there was a £200K increase in forecast loss as a result of increased pressure on Lampton services.