This week, the Advantage team spotted some encouraging news regarding social housing, with the first release of the Statistical Data Return 2019 reporting an increase in social housing stock.

The first release of the Statistical Data Return 2018-2019 published by the Regulator of Social Housing reports a rise in social housing stock owned or managed by private registered providers of social housing in England.

Last month, we published an Advantage blog stating that three-quarters of Britons believe that there’s a housing crisis, with most people agreeing that more social housing would be an important part of the solution. So these new figures will be welcomed by many.

Key points from the Statistical Data Return are as follows:

• Private registered providers of social housing reported owning 2,995,569 units/bedspaces on 31 March 2019 (including social and non-social tenures) – a 2% increase since 31 March 2018.
• 85 % of stock owned by PRPs on 31 March 2019 was low cost rental stock (2,567,063 units/ bedspaces)
• There were 20,900 more low cost rental (including Affordable Rent) units/bedspaces on 31 March 2019 than on 31 March 2018 (a 1% increase since 2018). This overall increase was driven by an 11% increase in Affordable Rent units
• An additional 11,299 units/bedspaces of low-cost home ownership were reported as owned by PRPs on 31 March 2019 compared to 2018 (an increase of 6%). The rate of increase in LCHO has been speeding up since 2017.

Fiona MacGregor, Chief Executive of RSH, said:

“The first release of this year’s Statistical Data Return, demonstrates how the social housing sector continues to change and grow. We hope that the data, now in a new format, is more accessible and continues to support our stakeholders in understanding key trends in the sector. We welcome feedback on how we can make further improvements.”

We’ll be back soon with more news from the construction sector, and will continue to look at the latest developments in social housing as we head into autumn. Thank you for reading!

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