We know the work we do to provide safe, secure, and affordable homes for our customers makes a huge contribution to society.
In contrast, there are significant impacts on the lives of people without a stable and affordable place to live – as well as the knock-on effects on wider society and the economy. Without social housing, more people would be out of work, there’d be more pressure on the NHS and more crime, costing the public purse and damaging our society.
The need to evidence the impact of social housing is therefore as great as it’s ever been.
The Value of a Social Tenancy (VoST), developed by ourselves and Sonnet Advisory & Impact CIC in 2018, set out to do just that.
VoST puts a value on the positive benefits for someone living in a social tenancy, compared with someone living in temporary accommodation, in a privately-rented home or with family and friends. For example, savings are achieved for the NHS, because people living in social housing are less likely to visit their GP or A&E, because they’re healthier.
Additionally, it makes the case to funders and policy makers for support and investment in the sector, by calculating the savings to the state, and benefits to other stakeholders.
The value of our social tenancies in 2024/25
The total social value per tenancy for our 23,738 General Needs homes was at least £753m in 2024/25, or an average of at least £31,703 per tenancy. This includes the ‘core’ social value generated per tenancy, plus the economic impact resulting from construction and maintenance spend.
We use an evidence-based approach to measure our impact on customers, communities and society, comparing how life looks like with social housing to life without social housing, where tenants are assumed to be living in temporary accommodation, private rental accommodation or with family and friends.
The difference in the associated costs and benefits between these two scenarios gives us an estimate of the value of a social tenancy for our 23,738 general needs homes.
The total value of our social tenancies has increased from last year (£640m), due to an increase in our construction and maintenance spend, which creates jobs, boosts the construction industry and generates tax revenue.
The core value of our social tenancies in 2024/25 (ie not including construction and maintenance) was at least £441m, or £18,561 per tenancy, compared with £460.5m, or £19,394 in 2023/24.
This decrease (despite inflation) - is primarily because we now consider Housing Benefit as well as Universal Credit when evaluating customer wellbeing, which gives us a more accurate picture of tenants’ lives and means fewer of our tenants are considered ‘thriving’ when compared to last year.
This year, our social homes delivered:
- At least £100m in savings to the NHS
- At least £199m in economic benefits
- At least £54.8m in savings to local councils.
Download a summary of our Value of a social tenancy report (PDF, 1.89MB)
Putting a value on England’s social housing
This year, for the second year running, we teamed up with other housing associations to work with our research company, Sonnet Advisory and Impact, to give a wider view of the value of social tenancies.
The 160,000 social tenancies owned or managed by Hyde, MTVH, The Guinness Partnership, A2Dominion and Platform Housing generated at least £4.8bn of social value in 2024/25.
And we estimate England’s social housing sector delivers at least £87bn per year for 4.3 million social homes. This includes:
- £18.5bn in savings to the NHS, because social tenants’ homes are healthier places to live than temporary accommodation or poor quality private rental housing
- £9.8bn in savings to local authorities, by moving people out of temporary accommodation, allowing older people to live independently for longer and improving children’s live
- £2.4bn in savings to the Department of Work and Pensions, as people living in social housing are more likely to be employed, and rely less on benefits.
Download a summary of the social value of Hyde's tenancies here (PDF, 1.89MB).
Sonnet Advisory and Impact’s full report can be downloaded here (PDF, 643KB).