Guinness Trust Buildings in Snowsfields, London Borough of Southwark
The Guinness Partnership is one of the largest providers of affordable housing and care in England. Founded as a charitable trust in 1890, it is now a Community Benefit Society with eight members.[1]Bloomberg classify it as a real estate owner and developer.[2]
As of 2024[update], the Guinness Partnership owns and manages around 68,000 homes, and provides services to more than 140,000 people.
It has struggled over the last few years to facilitate the relevant financial investment needed to it's ageing stock, resulting in a steady rise of responsive repairs, weak operating performance and a significant rise in capital Expenditure.
The Guinness Partnership has amalgamated spiraling debts into the Billions which has subsequently resulted in Millions of pounds being diverted away from investing in their ageing stock and used to service it's interests payments on loans, mortgage charges and debts that were maturing in this year. Credit forecasters are expecting for the debt level and interest payments to continue to rise over the next 3/4 years for the Partnership.
" Moodys credit profile of The Guinness Partnership Ltd. (Guinness, A3 stable) reflects its scale and strong balance sheet, offset by its weak operating performance and elevated capital expenditure. Guinness benefits from the strong regulatory framework governing English housing associations and our assessment that there is a strong likelihood that the government of the United Kingdom (Aa3 stable) would act in a timely manner to prevent a default."
The Guinness Trust was founded in 1890 by the then Edward Cecil Guinness,[3] a great-grandson of the founder of the Guinness Brewery, to help homeless people in London and Dublin. Edward Cecil Guinness was created the 1st Baron Iveagh in 1891, the 1st Viscount Iveagh in 1905, and the 1st Earl of Iveagh in 1919. Lord Iveagh, as he became, donated £200,000 to set up the Guinness Trust in London, the equivalent of £25 million in today's money.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Iveagh Trust based in Dublin took responsibility for Ireland. The Guinness Trust extended its objectives outside London in 1962, eventually operating in all parts of England. It was not related to the brewery company. The history of its first century was published by Peter Malpass in 1998.
In 1992, the Guinness Trust Group acquired the Parchment Group, parent company of Hermitage Housing Association.[4] The combined group is now known as The Guinness Partnership. Northern Counties Housing Association joined the Partnership in 2008.[5][6]
In 2022, Guinness Partnership announced that it has joined the G15 group of large housing associations in London, the body which aims to provide a collective voice for large, registered housing providers in the capital.[2]
Structure
Catriona Simons has been the current Group Chief Executive of The Partnership since 2015 and is also a serving Executive Board Member for the partnership. Catriona previously served as Deputy Chief Executive of the partnership after joining Guinness in December 2009.
Prior to her appointments within Guinness, Catriona started her career with Ernst & Young and was also Group Finance Director at Peabody.
Chris Wilson is the current Chair of The Guinness Partnership Limited, a board member of Guinness Housing Association Limited, Chair of the Property Committee, and a Member of the Remuneration, Nominations, People & Culture Committee.
In 2012, the housing properties and operations of The Guinness Trust were combined with those of the other main housing divisions in the Group to form a single charitable company operating nationwide, The Guinness Partnership Limited.
The Guinness Partnership and Wulvern Housing Limited merged on 31 January 2017.
The sales and marketing team is responsible for the sales of the Partnership's shared ownership and market sale properties across England. They are known as Guinness Homes and have a separate website to the Partnership's main website.[7]
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