Sustainability for Housing (SfH) has published the latest analysis from the 2024 Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing (SRS) submissions, marking a ‘coming of age’ for environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting across the sector.
The SRS is a unique movement that is working in the interests of the sector and its stakeholders, with a growing community of adopters across England, Scotland and Wales. There are now 170 Adopters – up from 78 five years ago – comprising of 132 housing providers owning and managing close to 2.4 million homes across the UK, and 38 funders that provide almost all the c£133 billion of private finance to the sector.
The 91 housing providers in this year’s report own and manage close to 1.9 million homes across England, Scotland and Wales. Some of the other key highlights include:
- The overall proportion of new homes achieving EPC A has risen year-on-year, from 2.1% in 2022 to 9.5% in 2024.
- The housing providers in this dataset delivered 35,800 new homes in the year, with 99.7% of the c35,800 new homes completed in 2024 achieving EPC C or higher.
- Of the new homes, low-cost home ownership and affordable rent continue to see the greatest allocation (29% of homes), followed by social rent (24% of homes).
- Average rents of FY 2023/24 were equivalent to 59% of private rented sector (PRS) rates or 72% of the Local Housing Allowance (LHA), demonstrating affordability relative to market alternatives.
- 37 housing providers that reported against the enhanced damp and mould criterion, sharing that 86,670 homes had cases of damp and mould in 2024, accounting for, on average, 7% of each housing provider’s total stock, with this proportion ranging from 0.2% to 17.9% across reporting providers. This is above expectations, with the RSH’s 2023 damp survey estimating that these cases account for 3-4% of stock.
- On average, housing providers report a CEO: median-worker pay ratio of 5.9:1 FY23-24, which compares positively to the largest UK companies.
- Housing providers report a 9% gender pay gap for FY23-24, which is above the national average of 7%.
Elizabeth Froude, chief executive of Platform Housing, said:“Platform was an early adopter of the SRS reporting standard, because we believed it was a part of starting our journey on sustainability.
“It has kept us honest with ourselves about what we planned to do and achieved in sustainability territory and has allowed us to have evidence and credible discussions with investors.
“It is so good to see that we now have so many more organisations who have joined us on the journey, and this report allows us to share a good news story about the progress we have achieved as a sector, despite all the headwinds we have encountered.”
Ian McDermott, chief executive of Peabody and chair of the G15 London housing associations, said:“For Peabody, sustainability is an ongoing responsibility—one that requires us to act as careful stewards of the homes, places and communities we support. The decisions we make today serves current residents but also future generations, with a long-term approach guiding how we plan, invest and deliver services.”
“Transparency and accountability are central to that responsibility. We’ve been part of the Sustainability Reporting Standard (SRS) from the beginning because we believe that a consistent, sector-wide approach to ESG reporting helps us all do better.”
“We’ve now published four reports using the SRS, and each one has helped us reflect on our progress, identify areas for improvement and focus our efforts where they can have the greatest impact. We continue to invest in improving the quality and scope of our data, because better insights lead to better decisions. The SRS remains an essential tool in helping us—and the sector—build a more sustainable future.”
The full report is available at: https://sustainabilityforhousing.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/SRS_Annual_Report_2025_FINAL.pdf
