Eighteen housing associations in Scotland - including the Haymarket Group of associations - have agreed to take part in a sector scorecard pilot to benchmark a range of business health and efficiency measures.

From April, the associations will record data against 15 different measures that will give an assessment of each association’s financial health, development progress, asset performance and operational efficiencies. The efficiency scorecard pilot will link up with a similar initiative elsewhere in the UK social housing sector, being led by Mark Henderson, chief executive of Home Group.

Kevin Scarlett, chief executive of River Clyde Homes and chair of the Haymarket Group, said: “We recognise the crucial importance of demonstrating efficiency to our customers, lenders and other stakeholders. A key way of doing this is through benchmarking and the pilot scorecard will help us on our journey to do this by providing real insight into our businesses.”

He added: “We have an amazing opportunity in Scotland to rise to the government’s challenge to the sector of building 50,000 affordable homes for rent and sale backed up with a significant grant offer. Everyone in Scotland will want us to achieve this. However, it is just as important to reassure our existing customers that we will not build any new homes at the expense of providing continued value for money and maintaining the affordability of our rents. We are confident this pilot will play an important role in making sure we get the balance right between the cost of our development programmes and in maintaining the overall business health of our individual associations.”

During the course of the pilot, discussions will take place around what measures could be included in Scottish scorecard beyond the pilot year.

Data is being collected during the pilot year by HouseMark Scotland. Any housing association in Scotland can participate in the pilot free of charge and does not need to be a current HouseMark Scotland member. Anyone wishing to join up to the pilot can contact: scotlandscorecard@riverclydehomes.org.uk.

The full list of participating housing associations is: