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Welcome to the latest in a series of surveys by Baker Tilly examining the current state of the UK’s social housing sector.

Many of you will be familiar with our regular ‘Credit Crunch’ survey and annual ‘Back Office Benchmarking’ report. Although the two provide an in-depth look at a wide range of issues, including the impact of the recession, investment plans and how to add value, their focus has largely been on Registered Social Landlords (RSLs).

With Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) managing over a million council homes across England andmany of them approaching a critical and potentially exciting stage in their lifecycle, we felt that the sector deserved separate and detailed analysis.

This survey was conducted during February 2010 and involved 37 of the 69 ALMOs - equating to 54% of the total sector. Over half manage less than 10,000 homes, whilst 20% look after 20,000 units or more. Most have been in existence for between three to four years, whilst 30% are well established, managing properties on behalf of their Council for over six years.

As with all our surveys, we have taken an in-depth look at what we believe are the key issues affecting the sector at the moment. We have looked at the impact of the recession, whether and how far ALMOs are willing to cut costs and drive efficiencies and what their perceptions are about the future.

In the light of the recently introduced new regulatory framework, we have also looked at whether ALMOs are clear on their obligations in this area, in particular, how successful they think they are at engaging with and empowering tenants.

We believe this is not only the most up to date report of its kind - we are confident that it is the most accurate and comprehensive. I hope you find the results of interest and as always, if there are any questions, thoughts or points that you would like to share, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

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