Industry News
Housing associations spent a ‘record’ £6.5bn on repairs and maintenance of existing homes
T
he largest 204 housing associations in England spent a record sum of £6.5 billion on the upkeep of their homes last year,
according to figures released by the Regulator of Social Housing. Between them these HAs each own at least
1,000 homes and collectively they own 2.8 million housing association properties across the country, about 95% of the total. Te spending figure represents a 20% increase
on the previous year’s spend of £5.4bn and includes £3.7bn spent on maintenance, £0.6bn on major works and £2.2bn on capitalised major repairs. Te previous record spend on R&M was the £5.7bn invested in 2019/20. Te accounts also show that more than 80%
of landlords reported a 5% or more increase in their repairs and maintenance spend on a per property basis. While the increased spending includes some
element of catch-up work from the pandemic (when lots of repair work was paused) and increased spending on safety works; the figures do not include the cost of retrofitting energy efficiency improvements, such as improved insulation. Given the ongoing reported problems with
disrepair and the need to tackle damp and mould in tenants’ homes, it is clear that spending by HAs will have to increase significantly in coming years. Te figures also show that the HA sector remains
reliant on its core business of letting social housing properties, which accounted for £16.5bn, or 70% of total income. Sales of shared ownership homes (at £2bn) and open market homes (£1.7bn) accounted for just over 16% of income. Meanwhile rent arrears have increased over
the past four years and now stand at 5.2% of gross rental income compared with 5.0% in 2021. Te accounts show HAs spent £12.3bn on
newly built houses and acquisitions in the year, up 12% from £10.9bn in 2020/21. Tis figure comprised £9.2bn on new social and affordable rental properties and £3.1bn on properties for outright sale. Overall 49,000 properties for affordable housing tenures, including shared ownership, were built. Te additional spending on investment in
existing stock reduced overall surpluses from £2.6bn to £2.4bn, while the accounts also showed that the overall operating margin had fallen to 19%, its lowest level since 2011. Forward projections show that HAs are
More than 80% of landlords reported a 5% or more increase in their repairs and maintenance spend on a per property basis
planning higher levels of investment in their existing stock, driven by a variety of priorities, including energy efficiency factors, stock quality improvements, building and fire safety works and decarbonisation work. Jonathan Walters, deputy chief executive of
the regulator, said: “Social housing providers maintained their strong liquidity in 2021/22, attracted new finance, and continued to invest in the homes they provide. However, wider economic pressures that were starting to impact their finances have now become serious challenges.’ “Providers need to continue taking a strategic
approach to managing economic risks and focus on their fundamental objectives of investing in new social homes, and providing safe, well-maintained homes for their tenants.”
Social housing tenant satisfaction with their landlord falls by 5%
A decline in overall tenant satisfaction is being driven by social housing landlords failing to listen to and act on tenant feedback, as well as poor handling of complaints according to analysis of the new performance measures. Te data analysis and consultancy firm
Housemark has worked with over 100 organisations to measure their performance against the 22 new Tenant Satisfaction Measures, which all social landlords will have to measure themselves against and report on from April. Te results of their analysis show there is a lot
of room for improvement, particularly in how landlords communicate and interact with their tenants, as well as how complaints are dealt with. Te main headline findings include: • Overall tenant satisfaction has decreased by around five percentage points since 2020 to 79% today. Te picture for shared owners is even more stark with only 56% satisfied;
• Fewer than two-thirds of residents (64%) feel that their landlord listens to their views and is
minded to act on them;
• Yet, 83% of tenants say their landlord treats them fairly and with respect; 75% say they are kept informed about the things that matter to them;
• Landlords are performing well on all safety measures, with a median score of 100% on all five areas;
• By contrast, only 83% of tenants say they are satisfied their home is safe;
• 85% of non-emergency repairs are completed on time against landlord targets, but the average days to complete repairs has increased by 40% to around 14 days since 2020;
• Eight in every 10 tenants say they aresatisfied with repairs; 76% are satisfied with the time taken to complete the most recent repair; and
• Only 68% of tenants say their landlord keeps communal areas clean and well-maintained.
In addition, eight in 10 tenants receive a response to a complaint within the 10 days required. Just over half of tenants (56%) say they are satisfied with
20 | HMMFebruary/March 2023 |
www.housingmmonline.co.uk
their landlord’s approach to handling complaints. Satisfaction with how their landlord handles anti-social behaviour is also low with a median score of just 60%. Housing providers are required by the regulator
to measure and report their performance against the 22 TSMs from 1 April. Registered Providers owning more than 1,000 shared ownership properties (around 50 landlords) must publish separate survey results for this group. Jonathan Cox, director of Data and Business
Intelligence at Housemark, said: “Although our data only gives an early indication of performance based on limited sample sizes, some striking trends are emerging that can inform landlord decision-making.” “Tere is clear potential for landlords to improve
listening to and acting on tenant feedback, as well as how they engage with tenants. Changes here could help to address the decline in overall tenant satisfaction that our analysis highlights.”
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