Impact of Social Housing on Local Economy
- 12 Feb
Stockport Homes' £30m of expenditure has had a £45m impact on the local economy, a study has revealed.
They fund jobs and projects in the wider community of Stockport, which give a large return on a relatively small investment.
Via 24 Dash
The study into the economic impact of social housing providers in the North, which was commissioned by the Northern Housing Consortium and conducted by Sheffield Hallam University, also found that although the HA only employs 450 staff directly, it supports 743 jobs when its supply chain is taken into account.
Stockport Homes earns over £700,000 each year from collecting water charges on behalf of United Utilities.
This funds 13.5 jobs and allows investment in a range of projects to help tenants and the wider community of Stockport including:
• Rent Deposit Scheme, which helped 90 households who were homeless to move into private rented accommodation last year, reducing their reliance on scarce social housing.
• Offender Service, which helped 102 ex-prisoners into accommodation, reducing their risk of re-offending on release by up to 20 percent.
• Employment and Volunteering Service, which helped 24 people into education or training and 19 into employment last year. In addition, 64 people provided over 1,000 hours of volunteering that helped them improve their chances of getting employment.
• Mortgage Repossession Advice, which helped 170 households with advice and prevented 51 from being made homeless after getting into difficulties with their mortgage payments last year.The study found that these projects had a large return on the relatively small investment Stockport Homes made in them.
It was discovered that the cumulative impact of benefit and money advice given to people last year was £4.3 million in gained benefits and reduced debts.
The study also revealed that funding advice given to community groups brought in £350,000 of grant funding, attracting a further £750,000 of match funding into Stockport's neighbourhoods, and preventing mortgage repossessions resulted in a saving for the exchequer of an estimated £800,000.
The HA manages 11,500 in the Stockport area.
Related articles
Exempt Accommodation, Welfare Reform and Vulnerable Tenants Another excellent session from Support Solutions - excellent value for money and excellent training D.A - St Vincent's Housing Association