Inside Housing Repairs Tracker 2023

According to the regulator, increased repairs spending is the main reason for a £400m annual fall in associations’ collective operating surplus from social housing letting activities, which totalled £4.4bn in the year to March. In its own review of associations’ finances, the RSH describes a sector facing difficult choices when it comes to repairs and maintenance: “Providers must continue to ensure that stock meets current and evolving requirements. In some cases, this will mean finding a balance between maintaining financial resilience, while delivering essential services.”

The tracker calculates the average amount associations spent on repairs and maintenance, by dividing each landlord’s total bill for the year by the number of social properties it owns or manages. This reveals a wide range of investment per home. While on average landlords spent £2,275.32 per property, two landlords – Heylo Housing and Sustain – spent nothing.

Source: Regulator of Social Housing, Global Accounts
Notes: Figures rounded

A spokesperson for Heylo says: “Heylo is a for-profit shared ownership provider, so will typically not have [repairs and maintenance] spend [or] obligations in the vast majority of cases.”

Ian MacGregor, chief executive of Sustain, explains: “Sustain does not own any property; we use managing agents to provide the property and services that our vulnerable adult tenants require, and have an in-house inspection team to check on the quality of the property and support provided. Thus, the repairs and maintenance responsibility and cost fall onto our managing agents.”

£6.5bn
Combined R&M spend by English associations, 2021-22

17.6%
Rise in major repairs spending, to £640m

£2,275.32
Average spend per home

At the other end of the spectrum, Tower Hamlets Community Housing (THCH) spent £7,631.68 on each of its 2,058 social homes on average. “We’ve invested a significant amount into fire remediation works, which has impacted our cost per unit for 2021-22,” says a THCH spokesperson. “Despite the high cost of investment, we prioritised safety and ensured works were completed as quickly as possible. Our average cost also reflects the make-up of our stock and location – the majority being high-rise flats in London.”

Overall, the vast majority – 87% – of tracked landlords reported spending more on maintenance and repairs in 2022 than during the previous 12 months.

Source: Regulator of Social Housing, Global Accounts
Notes: Figures rounded

Riverside, which according to its accounts owns or manages 68,624 social homes, was one of the larger associations to record a significant increase in its total repairs and maintenance bill. It spent £155.7m in the year to March 2022, an annual increase of 60.4%. A Riverside spokesperson attributes the rise to its merger with One Housing in December 2021.

“The figures for the financial year 2020-21 are inclusive of The Riverside Group only, whereas the financial year 2021-22 also includes four months’ spending of One Housing Group,” they explain. “The uplift in major repairs spend relates to cladding remediation works on One Housing’s tall building stock. Additionally, we saw increases in responsive repairs post-COVID-19, which has contributed to the uplift in expenditure. We anticipate reporting a further rise for the current financial year following our expansion.”

Source: Regulator of Social Housing, Global Accounts
Notes: Figures rounded

Although increased bills were the norm, 21 landlords reduced their spending last year. Bromsgrove District Housing Trust, which owns or manages 4,064 homes, recorded the largest drop, with total repairs and maintenance spending down 18.2% to £10.6m. The landlord did not respond to requests for comment.

Of the larger associations, 28,000-home Southern Housing Group logged the fourth-largest drop in total spending, down 15.4% for the year to £69.7m. While the headline figure disguises a 41.8% increase in planned maintenance spend to £8.2m, routine maintenance and capitalised major repairs spending both dropped by 12.5% and 25.7% respectively. A Southern spokesperson says routine spend fell as post-pandemic catch-up work reduced and it spent less on void properties. They add: “We set a reduced capitalised work programme in 2021-22 in response to challenging supply chains following both Brexit and COVID-19.”

Source: Regulator of Social Housing, Global Accounts
Notes: Figures rounded

The sector’s largest landlord topped the table for total spending for the sixth year in a row. Clarion, which owns or manages 109,802 homes, spent £363m on repairs and maintenance in the year to March 2022, up 26%.

Rob Lane, chief property officer at Clarion, says that as well as continued catch-up work and inflationary pressures, in 2021-22 the landlord faced “exceptional costs” relating to moving residents from Clare House, an east London tower block found to be dangerous in 2021, and the Eastfields Estate in south London which, in the same year, ITV News revealed was suffering from disrepair, pervasive mould and vermin. Storm damage also contributed to the overall bill.

Mr Lane adds: “Spend on planned maintenance and expensed major works has seen a £14m increase. Included is work related to our fire safety programme, where investment hit record levels during 2021-22. During the year, we also match-funded our energy efficiency work as part of our participation in the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Demonstrator.”

Mr Lane says that Clarion’s planned repairs and maintenance spending for the current financial year is already outpacing that for the last, with the landlord spending £93m in the first three quarters, compared
with £89m during the same period in 2021-22.

This looks set to be a sector-wide phenomenon. An analysis of associations’ current business plans by the RSH concludes that many are likely to increase spending on existing homes further, “to a greater extent driven by stock quality and decarbonisation”.

Looking ahead, business plans submitted to the RSH in June 2022 forecast that the sector will spend £40.7bn in the next five years, averaging £8.1bn a year – a 25% increase on the latest combined spend. This year’s record-breaking total seems unlikely to stand.

Update: at 12.50pm, 01.03.23

Bromsgrove District Housing Trust’s entry in the table titled ‘Housing associations’ spend on repairs and maintenance 2021-22’ previously showed that the association’s 2021 spend was £12.9m, which was incorrect. This figure has been corrected to £7.9m and the percentage change in the organisation’s spend has been corrected to 33.3%.

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