Impact of housing associations

On this page, when we say 'we' we're talking about housing associations in England.

Not-for-profit social landlords

Housing associations are not-for-profit social landlords:

There are more than 1,300 housing associations in England.
We provide 2.9 million homes for more than 6 million people – housing 10% of the population.
Our homes are in every council area of England.

We provide homes that are affordable to people in housing need:

The lower rents we charge save our tenants £9bn annually averaging around £5,000 per household.
Last year (2022/23) we built more than 39,000 new affordable homes.
Building these homes directly added £2.1bn to the national economy, supporting nearly 29,000 jobs.

We provide safe, good quality homes and services:

Nine in ten of our homes meet the Decent Homes Standard, the most of any sector.
All buildings with ACM cladding in the social sector have either completed or begun remediation.
Our homes are the most energy efficient of any sector, with an average SAP rating of 71.

We offer services that enable residents to live well:

We are the main providers of supported or sheltered homes in England, providing more than 400,000 of these homes.
Supported housing also helps ease the pressure on the NHS and care services, and saves the public purse around £940 per resident per year.
In 2019/20, we housed more than 57,000 formerly homeless households, nearly 35,000 of whom had been found statutorily homeless.
We provide settled homes – nearly two thirds of our residents have been in their homes for more than five years, and more than a third for more than ten years.

We play our part in building successful places where people want to live:

Managing and maintaining our existing homes directly adds £11.8bn to the national economy annually, supporting more than 150,000 jobs all over the country.
Housing associations spend an average of £65 per home on community investment, for example employment and skills training, money advice, community groups etc.
Many housing associations provide advice and support to their residents to help with claiming benefits, skills and employment, mental health and other areas.

Just one year of building the 90,000 social homes we need annually would:

Produce more than £51 billion of net economic and exchequer benefits over the lifespan of the homes.
Pay for itself in terms of exchequer benefits within eleven years
Support nearly 140,000 construction jobs in the first year alone.