The rough estimates of the average levels of expenditure per property over a five year period is for local authorities owning and managing stock is £5,000 and for registered social landlords owning and managing transferred stock is £15,000. Therefore, those retaining management and ownership would require arid extra £10,000 per home to match the level of expenditure of stock transfer RSLs. The difference reflects the scope and scale of work being done under each programme as some stock—transfer RSL’s are raising standards higher than the decent homes standard.
The numbers of social rent homes managed by local authorities and registered social landlords are tabulated as follows by urban and rural local authorities:
1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 20063 Total number of social rented units Rural 1,435,348 1,294,545 1,180,653 1,167,726 1,117,245 1,072,219 Urban 3,704,290 3,609,175 3,333,743 3,284,502 3,119,067 2,907,217 Total 5,139,638 4,903,720 4,514,396 4,452,228 4,236,312 3,979,436 Number of social rented units per 1,000 households4 Rural 243 205 174 164 150 137 Urban 324 306 270 261 239 214 Total 296 271 236 226 207 186 Number of social rented units per 1,000 population4 Rural 89 78 69 67 63 58 Urban 121 118 108 106 99 91 Total 110 104 94 92 86 79 1 Based on the DEFRA Rural Definition (2004) 2 Local authority stock is taken from the HSSA 1981 to 1996—RSL stock is taken from the HSSA. 2001 and 2006—RSL stock is taken from the RSR. 3 2006 RSL stock includes self contained units and bed spaces. 4 Communities and Local Government (formerly ODPM) 2003 based Household/Population Projections and Estimates. Source: Housing Strategy Statistical Appendix (HSSA) and the Regulatory Statistical Return(RSR)
Homes for social rent make up only part of the housing stock classified as affordable; the remainder is provided through low-cost home ownership or other sub-market rental products. Between 1 April 1991 and 31 March 2006 43,500 affordable homes were provided in rural areas and 123,000 in urban areas in addition to the social rent dwellings presented in the aforementioned table.
In recent years the Government have funded a number of schemes to offer specific housing assistance to key workers in areas experiencing problems of recruitment and retention difficulties: from April 2001 to March 2006, over 23,000 homes for key workers have been provided through the starter home initiative and key worker living programmes. These include both new homes and provision of equity loans to support purchase of homes on the open market. SHI ran from 2001-04 and was replaced by KWL in April 2004. KWL only operates in the south- east, London and the east of England.
We do not have data on how many key workers might be eligible for the programme so we do not know what proportion of eligible people have participated. The numbers of key workers that received help from key worker housing initiatives in each year since 2001 are provided in the following tables. These tables do not include second key workers helped within a household.
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Total East Key workers helped through new build 4 29 72 36 49 164 354 Key workers helped through equity loans 0 118 414 358 818 354 2,062 London Key workers helped through new build 0 0 41 131 372 408 952 Key workers helped through equity loans 13 1,373 2,596 2,039 2,465 1,456 9,942 South East Key workers helped through new build 0 16 148 398 652 935 2,149 Key workers helped through equity loans 68 877 2,205 1,091 1,687 924 6,852 South West Key workers helped through new build 0 20 14 0. 0 0 34 Key workers helped through equity loans 5 97 281 25 0 0 408 West Midlands Key workers helped through new build 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Key workers helped through equity loans 0 5 121 0 0 0 126
We do not collect data on the numbers of homes purchased in rural areas with the assistance of an equity loan. However, we do know the numbers of key workers helped through our new build schemes in rural areas. These are given in the following table. These numbers are small because demand for key worker housing tends to be in urban areas where the majority of employer organisations are located. However, from April 2006 regional housing boards have been able to prioritise groups for assistance under our other low cost home ownership schemes.
East South East Total 2001 0 0 0 2001 0 0 0 2003 0 0 0 2004 0 2 2 2005 19 3 22 2006 5 4 9 Total 24 9 33
The numbers of council properties sold through the right to buy scheme in England are tabulated as follows by urban and rural local authority areas. These figures have also been expressed per 1,000 population and 1,000 households.
1980-81 1981-82 1982-83 1983-84 1984-85 1985-86 1986-87 Right to buy sales Urban 1,442 64,049 114,272 70,608 49,710 46,792 48,696 Rural 886 41,150 52,851 35,654 27,812 25,350 28,052 Total 2,328 105,199 167,123 106,262 77,522 72,142 76,748 Right to buy sales per 1,000 population2 Urban 0.047 2.096 3.741 2.312 1.626 1.531 1.594 Rural 0.055 2.538 3.250 2.178 1.687 1.526 1.675 Total 0.050 2.249 3.570 2.265 1.647 1.529 1.623 Right to buy sales per 1,000 households2 Urban 0.13 5.58 9.90 6.08 4.25 3.97 4.10 Rural 0.15 6.88 8.74 5.80 4.46 3.99 4.35 Total 0.13 6.03 9.50 5.98 4.32 3.98 4.19
1987-88 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93 Right to buy sales Urban 60,929 91,287 101,483 60,341 36,033 26,225 Rural 32,800 44,414 32,321 15,991 12,257 11,461 Total 93,729 135,701 133,804 76,332 48,290 37,686 Right to buy sales per 1,000 population2 Urban 1.996 2.983 3.307 1.960 1.170 0.850 Rural 1.943 2.621 1.900 0.936 0.714 0.666 Total 1.977 2.854 2.805 1.594 1.007 0.784 Right to buy sales per 1,000 households2 5.08 7.53 8.29 4.88 2.90 2.10 4.99 6.67 4.80 2.35 1.78 1.66 5.05 7.23 7.05 3.98 2.50 1.94
1993-94 1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000 Right to buy sales Urban 28,607 27,658 21,055 21,974 28,506 28,854 38,998 Rural 16,071 15,678 10,457 11,232 12,823 11,418 15,253 Total 44,678 43,336 31,512 33,206 41,329 40,272 54,251 Right to buy sales per 1,000 population2 Urban 0.927 0.895 0.681 0.710 0.920 0.929 1.253 Rural 0.928 0.901 0.598 0.639 0.726 0.643 0.854 Total 0.928 0.897 0.651 0.684 0.849 0.825 1.107 Right to buy sales per 1,000 households2 Urban 2.29 2.20 1.67 1.74 2.25 2.26 3.04 Rural 2.30 2.22 1.47 1.56 1.77 1.56 2.06 Total 2.29 2.21 1.60 1.68 2.07 2.01 2.68
2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 Right to buy sales Urban 39,545 39,516 48,801 55,632 40,994 21,463 Rural 12,835 12,452 14,593 13,945 8,989 5,191 Total 52,380 51,968 63,394 69,577 49,983 26,654 Right to buy sales per 1,000 population2 Urban 1.256 1.251 1.542 1.752 1.288 0.672 Rural 0.715 0.689 0.802 0.761 0.488 0.280 Total 1.059 1.047 1.272 1.389 0.994 0.528 Right to buy sales per 1,000 households2 Urban 3.03 3.00 3.68 4.17 3.04 1.58 Rural 1.72 1.65 1.91 1.81 1.15 0.66 Total 2.55 2.51 3.03 3.30 2.35 1.24 1 Based on the Defra Rural Definition (2004). 2 Communities and Local Government 2003 based household and population estimates. Source: Statistical returns from local authorities.
The Department has not commissioned research into tenant satisfaction with choice-based lettings schemes (which would have used a quantitative survey approach).
However, the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) has carried out two qualitative studies for the Department into applicants’ perspectives of choice based lettings:
(i) as part of the evaluation of the Government-funded CBL pilot programme (which ran from 2001-2003). “Applicants’ perspectives on Choice-Based Lettings” was published in May 2004 and is available on the CLG website at www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1153279
(ii) as part of a research project looking into the longer term impact of choice based lettings. The BMRB study looked at applicants’ experience and views of choice based lettings in general, and the impact on community cohesion in particular. “Monitoring the Longer Term Impact of Choice Based Lettings”, which presents the findings of the BMRB study, together with the study carried out by Heriot Watt University that focuses mainly on social landlords, was published in October 2006 and is available on the CLG website at www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1503598
Overall, the longer-term research reveals a number of positive outcomes attributable to choice based lettings: improved tenancy sustainment; good outcomes for homeless households; a tendency for choice based lettings to result in more dispersed, rather than concentrated; lettings to ethnic minority households; and a tendency to speed up the re-letting of empty properties.