The National Housing Federation has bought a stake in HouseMark, the internet-based benchmarking service for social landlords, after four months of negotiations.
HouseMark was owned jointly by the Chartered Institute of Housing and accountant Andersen. The federation announced it was in discussions to buy out Andersen's share in the service in March, and has now concluded the purchase (HT 21 March, page 4).

HouseMark offers advice and best practice to 310 council and housing association landlords. NHF chief executive Jim Coulter said he eventually wanted to see HouseMark become a service that the social housing sector could use to regulate itself.

The Andersen team that was responsible for the development of HouseMark will transfer to the public sector team of consultant Deloitte & Touche, subject to regulatory approval.