Special report: Average pay at UK’s largest associations rises 3.6%

Significant changes here could be seen in Scotland, with Wheatley (which is classed outside of a traditional or an LSVT) seeing a 21 per cent increase in the number of its units managed per staff member to 23.

In contrast, managed units per staff member in Scotland reduced across the country’s traditional and LSVT HAs by 3.1 and 2.6 per cent, respectively.

Staff costs went up across the UK, with total staff costs increasing by 7.1 per cent and staff costs on a per-unit basis increasing by 3.5 per cent. The largest increases here were seen in Wales, which had a total increase of 7.4 per cent. This was driven by an 11.7 per cent increase in total staff costs across its LSVTs. The only reduction in staff costs per unit seen was at Wheatley, which recorded a 14.4 per cent drop in its staff costs per unit to £1,563.

England traditionals

Region played a big part in average wage differences. The 10 traditional HAs with the highest average pay were in London and the South, with half of those being G15 members, including Network Homes, A2Dominion, Hyde, Metropolitan Thames Valley and Optivo.

Excluding One Housing, which makes more than a third of its income from care, the G15 member with the lowest average pay was Southern Housing with £33,724. Southern had 994 FTEs, up nearly eight per cent on last year.

The HA’s total number of units managed was up six per cent to 30,130, while the number of units managed per staff member dropped by just over one per cent to 30.

Swan had the highest average pay overall, with £45,161, which was up 4.85 per cent on last year. Its pay was based on 517 FTEs, which had also increased on the prior year by 22 per cent. Of the 517 FTEs, 379 were administration staff; 134 were caretakers, cleaners and wardens; and four were maintenance.

The rise in its average pay follows a decision by Swan in 2018 to implement a new reward model for its staff in a bid to boost staff retention. This model included a benchmarking system and an improved pension offer. The HA said these initiatives had increased its cost base with the aim of “improving the engagement of our most important asset, our staff”.

At the same time, Swan had the third-biggest decrease seen in the number of units managed per staff member, dropping by 15 per cent to 22. This followed L&Q, which saw a 22 per cent drop to 31 units per staff member, and Your Housing Group, which had a 16 per cent drop to 26 units.

Swan’s staff costs totalled £27m for the period, which worked out to be £2,385 per unit – the second-highest cost per unit when you exclude the organisations that make at least a third of their income from care.

These care-based HAs made up the top 10 list in terms of highest staff costs per unit. Midlands-based Accord (now GreenSquareAccord after it completed its merger with GreenSquare this April), which had 2,378 FTEs, had the highest staff costs per unit at £4,469 (up six per cent). Average pay had increased by nearly five per cent to £22,668.

Average pay had reduced across 17 of the 65 HAs in this group. The largest decrease was seen at Optivo, which recorded an 11 per cent drop in average pay to £40,302. Despite this decrease, Optivo was still in the top 10 list for having the highest average pay.

The bulk of its 1,491 FTEs were classed as housing, support and care staff (1,190), with 239 in administration and 62 in development. Total staff costs stood at £72m and £1,595 on a per-unit basis.

Catalyst had the largest increase in FTEs of 77 per cent to 1,075, which can perhaps be explained by the group’s merger with Aldwyck, which completed in December 2019.

Following Catalyst was L&Q, with a 41 per cent increase in its FTEs to 3,436, which spanned multiple areas of work, including the chief executive department, care and support, development, and technology and digital.

In its accounts for the year, L&Q said that 512 FTEs joined the group during the period after it acquired Trafford Housing Trust, which completed in October 2019.

England LSVTs

Similarly to the traditional HAs, the 10 organisations with the highest average pay were based in the South of England, largely covering areas within Surrey, Sussex and London.

Red Kite Community Housing had the highest average pay among these with £41,143 – up nearly three per cent on last year. It also had some of the lowest staff costs seen among this group of HAs, totalling £7m. This translated to a staff cost of £1,015 per unit, which was up nearly eight per cent on last year.

On the other end of the scale, Bromford had the largest total staff costs with £65m, working out to £1,464 per unit. Both of these figures were up on the prior year – seven per cent and five per cent respectively.

Alliance had the largest reduction in average pay of 8.7 per cent. Alliance’s change was down to a 16 per cent rise in staff numbers, which was well ahead of a four per cent increase in the total wage bill.

Scotland

Sanctuary Scotland had the highest average pay out of the 20 traditional Scottish HAs, with £37,364. This was up 12 per cent on last year. Its average pay grew as its number of FTEs decreased by more than 26 per cent to 11 (from 15).

It had 6,946 managed units in total (up just over one per cent on the previous year), with units per staff member rising by 38 per cent to 631. Total costs and costs per staff member were both down by 19 per cent (£0.5m) and 20 per cent (£78), respectively, with the latter representing the largest recorded drop in staff costs per unit.

Bield Housing & Care, with more than a third of its income through care and supported housing services, had the second-largest reduction in staff costs on a per-unit basis with 18 per cent to £2,737.

Its total staff costs, which were down 19 per cent, stood at nearly £15m. The change came as the HA reduced its FTEs by 13 per cent to 468. Average pay across these workers was £27,023.

Kingdom had the lowest average pay at £23,313, which was up three per cent on last year. It had 482 FTEs, a rise of eight per cent. Total staff costs rose nearly 12 per cent to nearly £13m, with staff costs on a per-unit basis at £2,532.10 – increasing by nearly four per cent.

For Scotland’s five LSVT HAs, Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership (DGHP) had the highest average pay with £36,351. Like most HAs in this category, its average pay had increased.

The highest average wage increase was from River Clyde Homes, with a 13 per cent rise to £35,820. DGHP followed with an 11 per cent increase, with Hebridean Housing Partnership coming third with a 10 per cent increase to £32,514.

Argyll Community Housing Association was the only Scottish LSVT to see a reduction in its average wage, with a two per cent drop to £26,765.

Wales and Northern Ireland

The biggest changes to average pay among Wales’ traditional HAs was at Cadwyn, which saw a three per cent drop to £26,127. At the same time, its total staff costs and costs on a per-unit basis were both down around 2.5 per cent, to £3.5m and £2,429 respectively.

On the other end of the scale, Linc-Cymru had the largest increase in average pay of 17 per cent to £28,657. This was across its 446 FTEs, a figure that was down nine per cent on the prior year.

Mid-Wales had the largest reduction in the number of units under management per staff member. It saw a 33 per cent drop here to 16 units.

Average pay among its LSVTs varied between £27,000 and £35,000, with the highest recorded at Bron Afon (£35,295), which also had one of the most notable drops in this group – 11 per cent in its number of FTEs to 386.

Newport City Homes had the largest increase in staff costs (18 per cent in total and on a per-unit basis).

Out of Northern Ireland’s five HAs, Co-Ownership had the highest average pay by far, with £37,827, which was down nearly four per cent. It also had the highest average of units managed on a per-staff basis, with 145. It provides shared ownership homes.

Apex recorded the largest rise in total staff costs, with an 11 per cent increase to £19m. This was followed by Choice Housing Ireland, which had an increase in total staff costs of just over nine per cent to £13m.

Data represents accounts of the largest HAs according to type of business and country, a total of 186 HAs in the UK by category.

Average pay represents salary and wages, and excludes National Insurance and pensions contributions.

Year-on-year percentage changes include the expansion of existing HAs and HA groups.

Sizeable changes in staff data may be explained by a significant change in the size of an HA, or by an expansion in its activities.

Changes to an organisation part-way through a financial year will also affect year-on-year comparisons.

* = accounts under EUI FRS rather than FRS 102

^† = accounts year-end December 2019

^# = a number of HAs have a significant level of care services or supported housing FTE = full-time equivalents

Social Housing has identified 14 HAs using the following definition: at least a third of the HA’s turnover is represented by care or supported housing activities.

May include housing for older people, care for older people, nursing, social care, supported housing or Supporting People contracts.

These HAs typically employ more staff than would be necessary to manage general needs rental or leasehold units alone. For such HAs, average pay and the number of units per staff member may be lower than average, while total staff costs per unit may be higher than average.

In calculating bottom-line total average figures, data for these 14 HAs has been excluded from the calculation in these measures:

• Average pay
• Number of units per member
• Total staff costs per unit

Source: Audited accounts for 2019/20