The number of new homes started by housing associations rose 13% to almost 48,000 in the last financial year, new figures from the National Housing Federation reveal.
The NHF data released today shows associations started 47,709 homes of all tenures and completed 38,082 in the year to April 2017.
The NHF started surveying its members last year to gain a “complete picture” of the sector’s development output, due to “long-standing problems” with the official government figures. The figures are based on responses from 82% of developing housing associations.
The number of completions dipped 5% in the year, representing the slowdown in development starts 18 months ago following the surprise four-year rent cut.
The figures show that marginally more than half of 2016/17 starts (23,972 homes) were delivered without any government grant. This compares to 2015/16 when 22,072 homes were built with the support of government programmes and 20,032 without.
London recorded the highest level of housing association development in 2016/17, with 13,585 starts and 8,932 completions. This was followed by the South East and the East of England. The lowest level of development was in the North East, where 1,216 homes were started and 1,595 were completed.
In London 62% of homes started did not use grant funding – a sharp contrast with the North West, for example, where only 28% of homes started were being delivered without grant. This is likely a result of the higher profits, which can be generated through the London sales market to fund development.
The NHF data is released as Amicus Horizon and Viridian today officially launch a merged operation to create a 44,000-home housing association called Optivo.
Optivo is to be among the largest housing associations in the UK, with 90,000 tenants in London, the South East and the Midlands, and an annual turnover of £306m.
Amicus Horizon previously revealed to Inside Housing that it would have the capacity to build 1,500 homes every year from 2021, with even more possible with the addition of grant.
Optivo said it would raise £1.5bn of new finance to support its growth programme. The association aims to build 85% affordable homes, of which 60% would be below market rent and 40% shared ownership.
Paul Hackett, chief executive of Optivo, said: “Today marks the beginning of Optivo and the start of an exciting new journey. We’re now ‘one team’ and will be able to build more new homes than we could have done as separate organisations.”
