Housing associations should be legally required to report on the social value they generate and be the subject of a ‘right to challenge’ from tenants, a think tank has suggested.
Respublica, in a report out today entitled Acting on Localism: the role of housing associations in driving a community agenda, argued that government can deliver on its localism agenda by ‘harnessing housing associations to meet local needs’.
It said while communities do not have the resources to benefit from localism, housing associations do. It argued that housing associations should integrate their ‘social role’ into their business model and report on their social impact.
The government should extend the Public Services (Social Value) Act, to require associations to produce evidence of their social investment and returns it generates for communities, which should be determined by the community itself, the report argued.