• As at December 2021 the NFA membership consisted of 25 ALMOs managing around 329,500 homes.
• As in previous years, around a third of ALMO board members are tenants or leaseholders, reflecting the continuing importance of involving residents in ALMO governance structures.
• The sector built or acquired 1,501 homes in 2021. This is broadly consistent with previous years; 1,666 homes in 2021 and 1,961 homes in 2020.
• However, the sector sold at least 1,484 homes under Right to Buy which means that stock levels broadly remained stable, rather than growing to meet the ever increasing housing need.
• ALMOs have been supporting their parent local authorities with responding to the pandemic, economic challenges and the cost of living crisis, working in partnership to deliver both their core housing management services and additional services, including in the sphere of employment and training, homelessness and poverty reduction.
• ALMOs have been working through the competing challenges on Housing Revenue Accounts (HRA), which include increasing new build costs, building remediation costs and the zero carbon agenda. Given the new and emerging demands on HRAs, as well as the fact that the current settlement only takes us up to 2025, the survey report argues that time is right for a complete review of the funding streams for council housing.