I’m trying to find a number: anyone help out?
What I really want to know is what is the amount of subsidy to housing from below market social rents?
Now, a rough guide can be got from knowing how much is actually paid in social rents now: they’re about 50% of market rents, so if we knew how much, in total, was being paid now then we could simply say that the subsidy was equal to this sum.
I’ve had a rootle around and can find what specific social rents are, by region, etc, but does anyone know of where that total sum can be found?
In the absence of being able to find that total subsidy number?
7 responses so far ↓
1 Kay Tie // Oct 31, 2010 at 10:56 am
Unrelated statistic you’ll like:
http://www.economist.com/node/17363445
The last quoted stat in that piece is very interesting indeed.
2 Judge // Oct 31, 2010 at 12:00 pm
this any use?
http://www.york.ac.uk/res/ukhr/ukhr0910/tables&figures/pdf/09-114.pdf
3 JT // Oct 31, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Don’t remember to include rents charged by Housing Associations on their properties as well as rents charged by councils on theirs. If you check out the main Housing Association website you will probably discover what subsidies their members get each year to build their properties, which is probably reflected in the lower rents that they charge. I think HAs get a few billion a year.
4 JT // Oct 31, 2010 at 3:25 pm
er, that should be “don’t forget”…
5 matthew // Oct 31, 2010 at 5:51 pm
also interesting to compare it to mark wadsworths estimate of subsidies home owners get.
6 Richard // Nov 1, 2010 at 2:35 am
Tim,
This will give you the average weekly rent in private, council and housing association (= registered social landlord), so you can calculate the average hidden subsidy for council and housing associations, by region (a bit crude because it doesn’t distinguish by property type):
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/xls/table-715.xls
This will then give you the number of council and housing association properties in each region (regional totals down near the bottom):
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/xls/table100.xls
Multiply one by t’other, then multiply the total by 52 weeks, and you should get an approximate subsidy figure.
Figures are for England only, thanks to devolution.
7 Gareth // Nov 1, 2010 at 2:41 am
This what you’re looking for?
From the Tenant Services Authority:
“We make sure that the £127 billion of public money that’s been invested in social housing delivers value to taxpayers. We ensure that homes are available to the people who need them most, and by regulating rents we keep down the £7 billion annual Housing Benefit bill for social housing.”
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