Imperial’s total comprehensive income for the year was £141.9 million, which was lower than the prior year although that had been boosted by the reversal of a pension provision (2024: £286.5 million or £41.9 million excluding the pension provision reversal).
The surplus on operational activity (i.e. before gains on investments) was £97.9 million, compared to £2.2 million in 2023–24 once the pension provision adjustment was excluded. The year-on-year increase in income from research grants and contracts was particularly strong at £50.7 million, greater than the increase in tuition fee and education contract income of £46.4 million which has been the main driver of income growth for many years. We also saw increases in donations and endowments of £39.1 million, more than doubling the amount recognised in the prior year. Some material one-off transactions boosted income as well, such as an early surrender of a lease from a tenant in one of our investment properties (£15.2 million) and the sale of a biotech spin-out (£7.2 million). Offsetting these increases in income was a £68.7 million year-on-year rise in expenditure, of which £67.6 million was staff related (Staff costs 2025: £767.7 million; 2024: £700.1 million). Staff costs represented 55% of total expenditure in 2024–25.
Net cash from operating activities was £130.7 million in 2024–25 (2024: £81.1 million), representing 8.8% of income. Net cash outflow from investing activities of £84.1 million was lower than the prior year (2024: £90.7 million), with disposal proceeds partly offsetting the higher level of investment. An increase in new endowments (2025: £5.3 million; 2024: £2.8 million) helped reduce the net outflow in cash from financing activities (2025: £20.5 million; 2024: £23.3 million).
Our core education and research activities contribute around three quarters of our annual income. Our funding body grants are weighted more towards research than teaching, meaning that overall these two activities contribute similar amounts of income, both 39% in 2024–25 when research donations are included.
Gains on investments and asset disposals of £43 million were broadly in line with the prior year's amount. Part of this gain was down to the positive market returns on our investment funds and we also recognised a £27 million gain on the disposal of some legacy real estate assets.
Value for money
We regularly assess whether our operating activities continue to represent value for money. This value can be assessed by both the quality of the outcomes and the efficiency with which these are delivered. Other sections of this Annual Report and Accounts have noted various measurements and ways that demonstrate the value we are delivering for our students, research funders, and wider society through the impact of our work.
We deliver value for money through our procurement activity in multiple ways, including using university purchasing consortia, our online market site for regular purchases and rigorously negotiated contracts. We compare the outcomes with those of other universities of our scale using a standard efficiency methodology developed by the Higher Education Procurement Association (HEPA). The methodology helps ensure consistent reporting across universities. During the year, under this methodology, we generated efficiencies of £16.9 million (2024: £17.0 million). This represents a saving of approximately 6% (2024: 6%) of impactable spend, which is all operating and capital expenditure addressed by procurement activity. HEPA’s 2023–24 annual Procurement Value Survey (which reports a year in arrears) noted that the average saving among universities of a similar size was approximately 4%.
Examples of the savings achieved include £4.3 million on various construction projects, £3.4 million on ICT hardware and software, £3.3 million on research equipment, £3.3 million on general supplies hosted on our market site and £1.4 million on laboratory products. We piloted a new approach during the year to the way we undertake maintenance work and small refurbishments of our estate, placing less reliance on contracted resource and specialisms and making more use of in-house teams. Using this approach, we were able deliver a project for improved amenity space at our Hammersmith Hospital site for £0.65 million compared to an initial estimate of £1.5 million. We have achieved £2.8 million annual savings on our cleaning contract cost since November 2023 (28% cost reduction) with an additional £0.6 million saving negotiated in a contract with a new supplier.
All our spend had a particular focus on sustainable procurement and minimising scope 3 impacts. We have continued to invest in LED lighting, building management systems and metering to help us reduce energy demand and improve user comfort. Our various sustainability initiatives, including the more efficient boilers, helped reduce energy consumption by 8% in 2024–25 compared to the prior year.