She leads a Tayside housing association with thousands of properties and three major new build projects in Dundee under way. Last week she signed off a £25 million loan.
But Julie Cosgrove says her main challenge is not spiralling construction costs or overseeing a workforce of 200 staff.
The Caledonia Housing Association boss says her number one concern is the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on her tenants.
She says: “At the end of the day we’re a business. We have to ensure we can pay all our overheads but we’ve got that social ethos.
“I always think that we’ve got a business mind but a social heart and that’s the key difference for us.”
Julie has led Caledonia since it was created in 2011 following the mergers of Perthshire and Service housing associations.
The merger meant overheads could be reduced, allowing more money to be spend on building improvements and containing rent increases.
In the past 12 years, more than 3,000 properties have been added through more mergers and new build construction.
Caledonia Housing Association rent increases
The scale of the business has helped it tackle what Julie describes as its “most challenging year”.
She said: “We’ve had to look at all our overheads to make sure we’re driving best value for money for our tenants.
“Over the last decade our rent increases have been below the Scottish average. It’s something we’re really proud of.
“This has been the most challenging year in terms of controlling our costs and keeping rents down.
“Our out rent policy allows us to increase rents by the Consumer Price Index plus 1% but inflation has been running at over 10%.
“There’s no chance we’d do that level of increase. Across the sector it’s been an average of 6.2%. We approved a rent increase of 5%.”
Dundee developments
Caledonia has ambitious plans to continue to add more properties to its portfolio. Julie says the five-year plan is to add another 600 units in the next five years.
Funding worth £75m was arranged last year. The first £25m of this was accessed last week.
Three major Dundee projects are currently under way.
- Ballindean (67 units – 49 for rent and 18 available to buy through a shared equity scheme). Work started in May 2022. Final completion date December 2024. Total cost £12.7m with Scottish Government grant of £6.2m.
- Coldside Road (30 units). Work started in November 2021. First handovers in July 2023 and completion date of October 2023. Total cost £5.4m with Scottish Government grant of £2.6m.
- Rosebank (30 units). Work started in February 2022. First handovers in May 2023 and completion date of September 2023.Total cost £5m with Scottish Government grant of £2.5m.
The Ballindean and Rosebank projects have enhanced energy efficiency standards including air source heat pumps, battery storage and enhanced photovoltaic panels.
Julie said: “The funding will help sustain our growth in new builds and also ensure we can continue to improve and upgrade our properties in terms of energy efficiency.
“When we went to the market for funding, we were initially seeking £50m.
“I think it shows the strength and resilience of Caledonia that we were oversubscribed. We actually had offers on the table of more than £300m.
“We agreed a £75m package will be taken in three tranches.”
Helping people gives most satisfaction
While undertaking the housing projects and continuing to look at other growth opportunities, Julie says her main focus remains existing tenants.
Caledonia has provided tenants with access to advice from Scarf and emergency funding as energy costs increase.
She says helping people gives her most satisfaction.
“Ultimately we’re a social business and there’s nothing better than knowing we’re making a difference to someone,” she said.
“It’s lovely to see someone getting a new kitchen and bathroom or get the keys to a new house.
“Sometimes people are gobsmacked with the quality of the house.
“That makes it worthwhile and makes you understand why we’re doing things.
“I got a remarkable letter a few years ago from a woman who’d lived in one of our properties for more than 20 years. In that time fostered around 60 children in that house.
“It was lovely to have that much impact. A house is fundamental to quality of life, life chances and health and we want to raise standards in the sector.”
Conversation