Established in 2015, the Haymarket Group of housing associations joined forces to discuss how to jointly demonstrate and measure efficiency and value for money within the social housing sector.

In January 2017, the group decided that joining housing associations from across the UK in the sector scorecard pilot would be an invaluable exercise.

Kevin Scarlett, CEO of River Clyde Homes and chair of the Haymarket Group, said: “As a group we wanted to take our understanding of VFM to a new level. The sector scorecard pilot provided us with the opportunity to compare fifteen KPIs with our peers in Scotland as well as in Wales, Northern Ireland and England. In Scotland, we can share and gain learning from our peers across the UK.

“We are all working in similar regulatory environments providing services and homes to meet the needs of families and communities. Like our peers, we will continue to drill down further into our key business drivers using detailed cost benchmarking data but this pilot has provided each organisation with high level metrics to share with our governing bodies, lenders, tenants and other stakeholders.”

The Haymarket Group is committed to working hard to contribute to the Scottish Government’s target of 50,000 affordable homes being delivered by 2021. The data outputs from the scorecard pilot provide enhanced knowledge about business efficiency and financial health as part of wider business assurance. This will enable housing association boards to make data evidenced decisions around annual rent increases, minimising the impact to tenants and maximising rent affordability.

In 2018, the Haymarket Group intends to collaborate on a joint contribution to the review of the Scottish Housing Regulator’s regulatory framework by sharing the learning that has been gained from the scorecard pilot process.

Helen Forsyth, CEO of Berwickshire Housing Association, added: “We want the Scottish Government and Scottish Housing Regulator to be confident about our capacity to deliver new homes and to remodel and refresh older housing stock for the benefit of Scotland’s communities. Our governing bodies are committed to delivering value for money, sound financial health, efficiency and effectiveness.”

Kevin Scarlett extended his thanks to all members of the Haymarket Group stating that “they have embraced the pilot with enthusiasm, submitted data timeously and contributed to high quality debates about what value for money means. I encourage other housing associations in Scotland to join us in 2018”.

The Sector Scorecard pilot report for Scotland was produced by HouseMark Scotland and can be found here.

All participants in the pilot have received their own interactive dashboard to enable them to compare and contrast their results with their UK peers.

Any organisation wishing to participate in the pilot in 2018 should email scotland@housemark.co.uk. There is no financial charge for participation.

The Haymarket Group consists of 24 members:

Berwickshire Housing Association, Cairn Housing Association, Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership, Eildon Housing Association, Glasgow West Housing Association, Glen Oaks Housing Association, Grampian Housing Association, Hanover (Scotland) Housing Association, Hillcrest Housing Association, Home Scotland, Loreburn Housing Association, Maryhill Housing Association, Ore Valley Housing Association, Osprey Housing Aberdeenshire, Osprey Housing Moray, Paisley Housing Association, Port of Leith, Prospect Community Housing, Queens Cross Housing Association, River Clyde Homes, Rosehill Housing Co-operative, Scottish Borders Housing Association, Trust Housing Association, Waverley Housing.