Real Estate Investing Information Blog

Housing associations in the United Kingdom are autonomous not-for-profit bodies that provide low cost "social housing" for people in housing need. Any trading surplus is used to uphold existing homes and to help finance new ones. They are now the United Kingdom's main providers of new homes for rent; while many also run shared ownership schemes to assist people who cannot afford to buy their own homes outright.

Housing Associations offer a wide range of housing, some managing large estates of housing for families, while the smallest may perhaps manage a solitary scheme of housing for older people. Much of the supported housing in the UK is also provided by Housing Associations, with expert projects for people with mental health or learning disabilities, with matter misuse problems (drugs or alcohol), the formerly homeless, young people, ex-offenders and women fleeing domestic violence.

A feature of housing associations is that, even though the larger ones usually have paid staff, a group or board of management made up of volunteers has overall liability for the work of the organisation. A board might include residents, representatives from limited authorities and community groups, business people and politicians. There are additional than 30,000 voluntary board members running housing associations throughout England.

The inclusion of resident(s) on a board is mainly there to offer opinions on far reaching decisions from a resident's point of view. These tenant board members are very often members of a Resident's Federation, which are a divide body to the Housing Association, but meet with the Senior Management Teams on a usual basis to offer their opinions.

They first appeared in the second half of the 19th century as part of the enlargement in philanthropic and voluntary organizations brought about by the growth of the middle classes in the wake of the manufacturing Revolution.

Housing associations increased in significance over the last decades of the 20th century due to reforms to council housing brought in by the Thatcher government, when rules were introduced that prevented councils subsidizing their housing from local taxes. This combined with cost-cutting initiatives in local government led to many types of council transferring their housing stock to housing associations. These organizations are often referred to as Large Scale Voluntary Transfer organizations or Local Housing Companies.