Housing associations have improved efficiency and turnover this year, according to the latest global accounts for the sector.

The 2002/3 sector accounts by the Housing Corporation and National Housing Federation showed the turnover of associations grew from £6.6bn in 2001/2 to £7.5bn in 2002/3.

The number of associations also went up 16 to 1873 in 2003, and the number of homes they run grew by 190,269 between 2001/2 and 2002/3 to 1.95 million. That’s 52,146 more than the corresponding increase between 2000/1 and 2001/2.

A number of revaluations pushed the worth of the sector’s homes up by more than £5bn over the course of the year to £59.9bn in 2003.

Long-term loans went up by £2bn between 2002 and 2003. They had gone up by a similar amount between 2001 and 2002.

Other measures of efficiency, such as interest cover, have also improved. Turnover per employee improved in 2002/3.

It was best in medium to large associations rather than the biggest, possibly because larger ones growing through mergers had absorbed extra staff but had not reached their maximum profit levels.

Effective interest rates for associations also fell over the year because of historically low base rates and more sophisticated treasury management by associations.

Source

Housing Today