13 January 2006
Housing associations are building thousands of extra homes for rent and sale without any help from the Treasury, a survey reveals.
The survey, based on research carried out for the Housing Corporation, shows that for every five homes built for rent in 2003/04 using social housing grant, registered social landlords built or acquired a further property without public money.
When it came to homes built for sale, RSLs added an additional home for every 11 built using grant, according to the study Assessing added value, published on January 11.
The survey, carried out by researchers Ecotec, estimates that associations spent about £319m building or acquiring between 7,400 and 8,300 homes without grant in 2003/04 — about half of which were for rent.
During the same period, RSLs produced between 19,500 and 23,000 homes using public subsidy.
Corporation chair Peter Dixon said it was keen to commission further work to demonstrate that RSLs add value as well as operating efficiently.
PFjan2006
