How many homes did housing associations build in 2016/17?

May 25, 2017 / Isla MacFarlane
How many homes did housing associations build in 2016/17?

According to a briefing on the number of homes housing associations developed last year by the National Housing Federation, housing associations started 47,709 homes in 2016/17, a 13% increase to last year.

The results come from the NHF’s supply survey, which received a response rate of 82%. These members also cover 93% of stock owned by developing housing associations.

Summary of key points:

  •  Housing associations started 47,709 homes in 2016/17, a 13% increase to last year;
  •  Housing associations completed 38,082 homes in 2016/17, a 5% decrease to last year;
  •  Half of starts (23,972) were delivered outside the Affordable Homes Programme

(AHP), compared to 41% of completions (15,711);

  •  74% of social rented starts were delivered outside the AHP (2,881 homes), compared

to 67% of completions (3,190);

  •  45% of both affordable starts and completions were delivered through Section 106

(17,125 starts and 14,437 completions);

  •  20% of starts (9,649) and 15% of completions (5,701) were for market rent or sale.

There has been a long-standing problem with the available data on the supply of new housing association homes, the NBF said. The housebuilding figures published by the Department for Communities and Local Government do not attribute all of those homes which are built for housing associations through Section 106 agreements to the housing association category, as acknowledged in the notes for that dataset.

In addition to this, the data published by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and Greater London Authority (GLA) only captures activity within the programmes they fund, so misses out provision of homes outside these programmes, whether they are market or sub-market products.

“In order to address this, and gain a more complete picture of the level and breadth of development activity engaged in by our members, we have collected data on new development directly from developing housing associations,” the NHF said. “There were 38,000 completions, which is a 5% decrease to the year before. This is primarily due to a period of uncertainty following announcements that rents would be cut by 1% in April 2016.”

Jenny Charlton, Member Intelligence Manager at the National Housing Federation, said, “Housing associations also completed 38,082 homes last year, of which 41% – or 15,711 homes – were funded without government investment. There were significant variations in the number of homes completed across the country, and the proportion of homes completed without government investment, as the chart below shows. The majority of delivery took place in London and the South East, with comparatively fewer homes completed in the North East and Yorkshire and Humberside.

“Housing associations’ impressive track record of contributing to the 220,000 new homes needed every year sets us up as key partners with the new government. Only by working with us can the new government hope to reach their house building targets and provide the new homes this country needs.”

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