Housing Associations – which fall under the legal banner (in Wales) of Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) – provide just over 150,000 (or 69.3%) of all social homes available for rent in Wales as of 2022-231.
The sector lies in a grey zone of providing a public service whilst effectively being run as businesses within the private sector.
Additionally, some Welsh councils have maintained council housing while others have no council-let housing at all.
1. StatsWales, “Self-contained stock at social rent by local authority area and provider type” (2022-23). Available at: https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Housing/Social-Housing-Stock-and-Rents/selfcontainedstock-by-area-providertype
First, some of the advantages:
- Housing associations have access to private funding in a way councils don’t. They’re also allowed to borrow against the value of the houses they have.
- As charitable not-for-profits, housing associations can claim certain tax reliefs.
- Many housing associations run subsidiaries or charities that provide residential care services or other forms of assistance to tenants and others (i.e. care and repair).
- Tenants can get involved in the management of their housing association through membership due to how housing associations are structured as businesses.
- Housing associations are more closely regulated by the Welsh Government than private landlords and are expected to provide a higher standard of housing through the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS).
- It takes the cost of managing and bringing social housing stock up to standard off the books of councils, enabling them to focus on those in most need (i.e. the homeless).
Now the disadvantages:
- It’s privatisation of social housing. Housing associations are still run as businesses and need to make a profit to re-invest. They can also get into financial difficulties.
- Empire building. Like any other business, housing associations can merge, resulting in a loss of local control over the management of social housing. There’s no obligation to give tenants a say on mergers.
- Councils lose an asset that they built up over decades (for nothing) and also lose an income stream from rent.
- While tenants and employees can become “members” of a housing association, there’s less democratic oversight and scrutiny when compared to council housing.
- In 2021-22 there were 61 housing association employees earning more than £100,000-per-year. The amount CEOs made for every social housing unit managed by their housing association ranged from £10.56 to £99.962.
- Average housing association rents are higher than council housing, with housing associations charging around £5 per week more for a flat or house than councils as of 2023-243.
Perhaps the biggest disadvantage in Wales is housing associations’ poor record when it comes to building new social homes.
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The number of completed homes across the board is pretty bad – particularly since the 2008-9 Great Recession.
From the graph it’s clear that housing associations haven’t come close to matching the number of council homes that were built pre-Thatcher – a period when local government was going toe-to-toe with the private sector. The council house effectively “died” in Wales around 1990, when completions started to fall off a cliff.
For the last decade, for every 1 house built by a housing association around 5 or 6 are built by private developers. It was only during the first half of the 1990s that housing associations were close to a 1:2 or 1:3 ratio.
2. Community Housing Cymru (2nd March 2022). “Pay transparency report 2021-22”. Available at: https://chcymru.org.uk/cms-assets/documents/CHC-Pay-Transparency-Report-2021_22-2.pdf
3. StatsWales, “Average weekly rent in stock and social rent by dwelling type, number of bedrooms and provider type”. Available at: https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Housing/Social-Housing-Stock-and-Rents/averageweeklyrentsinstockatsocialrent-by-dwellingtype-numberbedrooms-providertype
