21 April 2006
Smaller landlords have again emerged as the most cost effective in the Housing Corporation's latest tables comparing the financial performance of housing associations.
The tables, published on April 19, are a third attempt to show the operating costs of registered social landlords, although the first, almost two years ago, was largely discredited after it was wrongly labelled as an efficiency index.
Jon Rouse, the corporation's chief executive, heralded this week's results, based on 2004/05 returns, as the most accurate yet. For the first time, income from non-letting activities such as community services have been taken into account, along with the condition of assets.
'We want to understand how associations are seeking to deliver improved efficiency and effectiveness,' said Rouse. 'We believe that the publication of these indices, alongside performance indicators, will help associations and ourselves to focus on the right issues.'
For the second year running, two sets of operating costs are calculated for more than 450 RSLs – with and without major repairs. Among the associations with the lowest costs are Three Rivers Charitable, which owns 578 homes, and West Lodge, with 676. Both are part of larger housing groups.
A spokesman for the National Housing Federation described the tables as a crude analysis that did not take into account the quality of services. 'As an indicator of costs, it does what it says,' he said.
But Clare Miller, director of regulation policy at the corporation, said there was evidence that RSLs used the tables to compare their performance with similar-sized associations. To allow comparison, the 2003/04 tables have been recalculated based on the new model.
PFapr2006
