Social housing service charges: a record deficit

Government figures for Housing Associations show that the shortfall between service charge income and service charge costs reached a staggering £581m last year.*

That’s up £130m on the previously reported results from 2022 – and is more than double the deficit in 2016.

Imagine how many extra homes could have been built, if even half of that shortfall had been recovered?

In the private sector, the handling of service charges and their recovery is regulated by RICS. The processes must be fully audited to ensure accuracy.

Housing Associations – many of which still rely on complex and unwieldy spreadsheets to manage their service charges manually – have no equivalent regulatory framework and are often lacking adequate controls.

That’s why Trace’s BlueBox software – one of the most significant players in the management of private sector service charges – has become so popular amongst the larger social housing providers.

BlueBox provides service charge calculations that are rigorously accurate, with full audit and management control.

By eliminating the reliance on spreadsheets and integrating easily with existing systems, it allows housing providers to grow, to automate, and provide full transparency for tenants.

You can read more about Housing Association service charges in this edition of Housing Executive (see page 27).

If you’d like to know more about BlueBox for Housing Associations, please call us on +44 (0)20 7825 1299, email us at hello@tracesolutions.co.uk, or use the contact form below.

*2023 Global Accounts of private registered providers: an annual summary of the financial status of private registered providers of social housing