The editor’s rundown: housing as infrastructure, ‘getting things built’, and a close-up on TSMs

But for the sector, the big conversation in January centred around comments made by the National Housing Federation’s (NHF) chief executive about the future role of for-profits.

Speaking to the Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Committee, Kate Henderson said that for-profit registered providers were not “the answer to the social housing crisis”. She also referred, without giving more detail, to talk of “wholesale privatisation” of housing association homes – something she said the NHF would “strongly oppose”.

Telling MPs that housing associations’ existing stock has substantial investment needs, Ms Henderson added: “[We] just don’t see how you’d be able to extract the profit there from what is the social rent.”

Responding to the comments, prominent for-profit providers told Social Housing that they have a “crucial role” to play in tackling the shortage of homes.

Mark Sater, chief executive of Blackstone and Regis-backed Sage Homes (who also recently announced plans to step down) told Social Housing that different entities all need to work together to tackle the housing crisis.

“The best way to address the undersupply of affordable housing is through collaboration and innovation between government, the housing sector and private investors,” he said.

Meanwhile, Simon Century, head of capital investing at Legal & General (L&G), which has nine for-profit providers, said that with a need for 145,000 affordable homes a year, housing associations “cannot meet the shortfall the country faces alone”.

“Investing people’s pensions has helped to fill this gap in recent years, becoming an absolutely key plank of new social and affordable housing delivery,” Mr Century said.

By all accounts, the wider gap in delivery facing the government as it endeavours to meet its 1.5 million homes target does not appear to be shrinking. A new study by Southwark Council published in January found that nearly seven out of 10 councils expect to cut their plans to redevelop or build new homes amid the crisis in housing budgets.

Around a quarter of local authorities also anticipated selling some existing homes to balance their books by 2029, the survey of 76 stockholding councils found.

In more optimistic news, more than 200 landlords have signed up to a new Homes England service intended to facilitate the sale of unsold homes through Section 106 agreements.

Around 140 registered providers and more than 70 councils have already registered as potential buyers. Meanwhile, over 70 house builders are registered to provide details of affordable homes they have planning permission to build but have been unable to find a buyer for.

Elsewhere, our special report takes a closer look at the first year of tenant satisfaction measure (TSM) results and compares these with consumer gradings to date.

Landlords spoken to for the report tell us how they are using learnings gleaned from their data to make improvements and change their approach. Read our analysis in full.

Sarah Williams, editor, Social Housing