I can understand the enthusiasm of journalists for league tables but I don’t think you will find much support from housing associations for using them when it comes to the “cost index”.

As your more in-depth article highlights, many of us feel that the whole exercise is not in the least bit helpful in understanding our relative costs and it is far from true to say that the methodology has been fixed to everyone’s satisfaction.

In view of the expense incurred in engaging consultant Indepen to come up with this approach, it is inevitable that the Housing Corporation will continue to publish this data.

Few would dispute the importance of improving our efficiency but the cost index is not helping to do this in any meaningful way. Indeed, there remains a strong body of opinion that says the results are largely unintelligible.

Keith Exford, chief executive, Affinity Group

Source

Housing Today