Why do housing partners matter?

Why do housing providers, including housing associations, almshouse trusts and private partners, matter?

Well, in our area they own and manage...

  • more than 46,000 "general needs" flats and houses

  • more than 2,600 "supported" flats and houses for those with specialist housing needs for example, people with disabilities

  • more than 6,700 flats specially for older people

  • more than 4,500 low cost home ownership properties - often shared ownership, though it can vary.

This adds up to housing providers (as they are known) owning and/or managing more than 60,000 properties across Cambridge, East Cambridgeshire, Fenland, Forest Heath, Huntingdonshire, Peterborough, South Cambridgeshire and St Edmundsbury. The map above shows how many providers are active in each of the seven districts in our housing sub-region.

Not only are housing providers involved in getting new, affordable housing built - they also help let the homes to people who need them, and manage the housing once it's in use - organising repairs & maintenance; support to people with specialist needs; care for older residents; advice on money matters, community activities and much more. At the end of each tenancy, when the tenant moves out the housing provider has to prepare for the arrival of the new tenant.

In January 2016 we updated our directory of housing providers, including the number of homes owned and managed of different "types" in each district. You can find the open data here http://opendata.cambridgeshireinsight.org.uk/dataset/private-registered-...

The data comes from the Homes and Communities Agency here https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistical-data-return-statis...

If you want to find out more, please have a look at our report "Delivering Localism" which gives a flavour of housing provider activity, here http://www.cambridgeshireinsight.org.uk/file/1970/download

You can also visit the National Housing Federation which is the 'trade body' for housing associations at www.housing.org.uk

We provide a list of local providers and their web addresses here http://www.cambridgeshireinsight.org.uk/housing/housing-providers

And finally... for more detailed local infomation about all kinds of housing partners active in our area, please visit our new Guide to Housing Services here http://www.cambridgeshireinsight.org.uk/housing/guide