Social Housing Information

Ten-Year Decent Homes Standard

In its Capital Spending Review 2000, the Government outlined an ambitious 10-year Catch-Up Repairs Programme to eliminate the backlog of works to social housing, seeking to bring all social housing up to a “decent” standard by 2010/11. The programme of works is estimated to cost around £19 billion. Regardless of any changes in future government policy, there will need to be guaranteed spending on social housing, provided either through Communities & Local Government (CLG) or through private finance, to achieve this target.

Local Authorities:

Local Authorities must therefore review whether the funding they receive from Communities & Local Government (CLG) i.e. HIP/MRA is sufficient to bring their stock up to the Decent Homes Standard by the 2010/11 deadline.

If not, they must choose one of the three alternatives:

  1. Via Stock Transfer – selling stock to an RSL (Registered Social Landlord) who then utilises private finance to refurbish the stock.
  2. Via Private Finance Initiative PFI (HRA) - utilises private finance via a consortium to carry out major stock refurbishment. Day-to-day management and maintenance is also provided by the consortium for the next 25-35 years of the contract.
  3. Via an Arms Length Housing Management Organisation (ALMO) – the best performing LAs maintain ownership of their stock while the major refurbishment, day-to-day management and maintenance is carried out by a 'third party' set at 'arms length' to the authority. Additional funding is available for this.

Registered Social Landlords:

The Housing Corporation unveiled its biggest ever investment programme of more than £3.9 billion over a two year period (2006/07-2007/08). The database provides details of which RSLs have received this money plus the personnel involved in spending this money!

Social Housing Statistics

TOTAL NUMBER OF SOCIAL HOUSING PROVIDERS: 2287
TOTAL STOCK: 5,093,253