Survey – housing associations on stock expansion, confidence, and funding

Housing Associations are crucial to the task of improving the availability of housing in the UK.

With a role that specifically sets out to provide and maintain housing for people in the Local Authority’s catchment, they’re a frontline housing service for the UK.

For a glimpse into what the sector is thinking, we asked a panel of housing associations to offer their input on key questions about their industry.

Some of the illuminating headlines from the data include:

• Nearly 80% of surveyed housing associations (HAs) have expanded their stock in the last three years, and 85% plan to expand their stock further in the next three years.
• Over a third of surveyed HAs say the biggest obstacle to building new housing is the cost of maintaining their existing stock.
• The overwhelming majority of surveyed HAs have made no changes to their future housing stock plans based on changes in funding from central government.
• More than a third of surveyed HAs think their work will have no meaningful impact on their ability to achieve any new local housing targets.

Other questions touched on modern methods of construction, how Housing Associations perceive the quality of the homes they acquire, and how they’re being affected by the Building Safety Act.

Their feedback paints a mixed picture, where expansion of new stock is both a plan and a priority, but concerns about both prohibitive costs and central funding confidence pervade the sector.

Download the full report below: