The Vale Housing Association is a non-profit making organisation, committed to providing quality housing at affordable rents. At the time we took over the ownership of all the Vale of White Horse District Council's housing stock in 1995 there were just over 5,000 homes. We have lost properties through the Right-to-buy but we also have an active development programme which is increasing our stock of properties. We own one in ten of all the homes in the Vale of White Horse and are one of the ten largest businesses in the District. We have a staff of around 170 people and carried out 15,387 responsive repairs last year.
On 1st April 2007, the beginning of this financial year, the Association owned 5316 properties. 26 of these were empty, being brought up to our "lettable standard" in between tenancies. The average amount of time that a property was empty whilst we improved it and let it to someone was 35 days.
| Property type | Number owned on 1st April 2007 |
|---|---|
| Studio flat | 132 |
| One bedroom | 1138 |
| Two bedrooms | 1856 |
| Three bedrooms | 2070 |
| Four or more bedrooms | 120 |
409 homes were newly let by the Association last year. Just under two-thirds of these were new tenants, taken from the Council's waiting list.
| Movement | Percentage |
|---|---|
| New tenants (nominated from Councils' waiting lists) | 66% |
| Transfer | 29% |
| Own list | 5% |
| Referred from another organisation | 0% |
72 people also moved home through taking part in a mutual exchange.
We are committed to providing as many extra affordable homes a year as we can, to keep housing waiting lists down.
| Financial Year | No. of properties bought/ refurbished | No. of properties built | Total no of properties |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006/07 | 154 | 41 | 195 |
| 2005/06 | 28 | 119 | 147 |
| 2004/05 | 0 | 21 | 21 |
| 2003/04 | 8 | 49 | 57 |
| 2002/03 | 39 | 53 | 92 |
| 2001/02 | 34 | 54 | 88 |
| 2000/01 | 21 | 25 | 46 |
| 1999/00 | 19 | 23 | 42 |
| 1998/99 | 25 | 52 | 77 |
| 1997/98 | 39 | 38 | 77 |
| 1996/97 | 39 | 6 | 45 |
| 1995/96 | 61 | - | 61 |
| 1994/95 | 13 | - | 13 |