The Housing Corporation launched a programme, inviting English local authorities to take part in an online survey to provide feedback on their views of the performance of housing associations working in their areas. This will help the Corporation to build up a nationwide picture of authorities' relationships with associations operating in their areas.
The link to the Corporation survey will be emailed to all 354 local authorities that have a strategic housing role. It will consist of eight questions that are relevant to sustainable communities and housing delivery. Each authority will be asked to provide feedback on the five largest housing associations working in their area.
Housing Corporation Chief Executive Steve Douglas said:
"This is a unique opportunity for local government to provide us with their view on housing association performance. Local authorities and housing associations are key players in the delivery of housing in local areas.
"The information we receive will enable us to build up a nationwide picture of local authorities' views on the performance of the housing association sector and contribute to delivering the place-shaping agenda."
Local Government Association Chief Executive, Paul Coen said:
"As local authorities take on their place shaping role, it is important that we feed into the social housing regulator's assessment of leading housing associations performance in each area. We welcome this Corporation initiative, which aims to gather feedback on how key social landlords work with local authorities across the country."
A pilot took place in March 2007. Then, ten local authorities provided feedback on 38 associations. The feedback received was positive and local authorities said they welcomed the opportunity to provide comments and found the survey easy to use.
A full report of the findings will be published in early 2008.
More information on the survey will be available from a dedicated web page at www.housingcorp.gov.uk/survey.
According to new research, housing associations are making a major contribution to tackling worklessness by investing over £209 million on almost 900 innovative projects in the last five years.
The research, commissioned by the Housing Corporation following the Hills review, examined the current literature on social housing and worklessness and housing association activities to tackle worklessness amongst their residents and in the wider communities in which they work.
It explored a range of issues, including:
Researchers spoke to over 280 housing associations across the country and obtained detailed case studies in addition to many other examples of current practice.
Key report findings include:
The research was carried out by independent consultant Helen Cope, former Chief Executive of East Thames Housing Group.
Copies of all of the research will be available from www.housingcorp.gov.uk.
