How Housing Associations Can Report on Community Impact

Housing associations do far more than provide homes. They invest in employment support, health and wellbeing programmes, digital inclusion, financial capability, and neighbourhood improvement. But without effective impact reporting, this work remains invisible to regulators, boards, funders, and — crucially — to the residents and communities who benefit from it.

TL;DR: Effective impact reporting for housing associations requires clear frameworks, systematic data collection, social value measurement, and compelling storytelling. Start by defining what outcomes matter, build data collection into everyday workflows, and use established tools like HACT's Social Value Bank to quantify results.

What you'll learn: How to build an impact reporting system that captures, measures, and communicates the community value your housing association creates.

Why it matters: The Regulator of Social Housing expects evidence of resident engagement and satisfaction. Funders want demonstrated outcomes. Boards need data to inform strategy.

Practical focus: Step-by-step guidance you can implement regardless of your current reporting maturity.

Who this is for: Impact officers, community investment managers, and housing association directors who need to report social value to regulators, boards, and funders.

Why Impact Reporting Matters Now

The landscape for housing associations has shifted significantly. Regulatory changes, increased scrutiny from residents and media, and growing competition for funding all make robust impact reporting essential rather than optional.

Regulatory Context

The Social Housing Regulation Act 2023 introduced proactive consumer regulation for the first time. Housing associations must now demonstrate, through Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) and other reporting, that they are delivering on their social purpose.

Tenant Satisfaction Measures: The 22 TSMs require annual data collection and reporting on resident satisfaction, repairs, safety, complaints, and engagement. In the first year of reporting (2023/24), the median satisfaction score across the sector was approximately 70%, revealing significant room for improvement.

Proactive Consumer Regulation: The Regulator of Social Housing can now intervene based on consumer standards without waiting for a referral, making proactive impact reporting a protective measure.

Transparency: The expectation is that housing associations will publish performance data, enabling residents and stakeholders to hold them accountable.

Impact reporting is no longer about showcasing good work — it is about demonstrating accountability and transparency to regulators and residents alike.

Stakeholder Expectations

Different stakeholders need different things from impact reports, and effective reporting addresses multiple audiences.

Understanding your audiences shapes what you measure, how you present it, and how often you report.

The Investment at Stake

Housing associations invest significantly in communities across England. This includes direct community investment through programmes and services, as well as indirect investment through procurement, employment, and environmental improvements.

Per-Property Investment: Community investment varies widely across the sector, from under £50 per home to over £500 per home annually for the most community-focused organisations.

Staff Time: A significant proportion of community investment is staff time rather than direct expenditure, making it harder to quantify without systematic tracking.

Leveraged Funding: Housing association community programmes frequently attract additional funding from other sources, amplifying the impact of initial investment.

Without impact reporting, the true scale and value of this investment is invisible — to external stakeholders and often to the housing association itself.

Step 1: Define Your Impact Framework

Before collecting data, establish clarity on what outcomes matter to your organisation and how you will measure them.

Choose Your Outcomes

Identify the outcomes that your community programmes are designed to achieve. These should align with both your corporate strategy and the needs of your communities.

Common Outcome Areas:

• Employment and skills (residents supported into work or training)
• Financial resilience (residents helped with money management, benefits, or debt)
• Health and wellbeing (physical health, mental health, social isolation)
• Digital inclusion (residents gaining digital skills or access)
• Community safety (anti-social behaviour, neighbourhood satisfaction)
• Environmental sustainability (energy efficiency, green spaces)
• Community cohesion (volunteering, neighbourhood activities, resident involvement)

Be Selective: You cannot measure everything. Focus on outcomes that are genuinely important to your strategy and your communities, typically 5–8 primary outcomes.

Define Indicators: For each outcome, specify what you will measure and how. For example, "employment" might be measured through the number of residents supported into paid employment within 12 months of engagement.

A clear framework prevents the common trap of measuring what is easy rather than what matters.

Align with Sector Standards

Using established frameworks improves credibility and enables benchmarking.

HACT Social Value Bank: The most widely used social value framework in the housing sector, providing over 80 methodologically robust monetary values for outcomes such as improved wellbeing, employment, and reduced crime. Hundreds of housing associations have used the Social Value Bank.

UK Community Renewal / Shared Prosperity Fund Metrics: If your programmes receive government funding, align outcome measurement with funder requirements.

TSM Alignment: Map your community programme outcomes to relevant TSMs to demonstrate how investment supports regulatory compliance.

Theory of Change: Develop a simple theory of change that articulates how your activities lead to the outcomes you are measuring, creating a logical chain from inputs to impact.

Alignment with sector frameworks reduces the cost of measurement and increases the credibility of your findings.

Step 2: Build Data Collection into Workflows

Impact data should be collected as a natural part of service delivery, not as a separate exercise conducted once a year for reporting purposes.

Embed Data Collection in Daily Practice

The most accurate and comprehensive impact data comes from recording outcomes as they happen.

At Point of Contact: Record engagement data when staff interact with residents, not days or weeks later. Research suggests that same-day recording substantially improves data accuracy compared to retrospective documentation.

Use Case Management Software: Purpose-built case management tools enable staff to record activities, link them to outcomes, and track individual journeys in real time.

Minimise Burden: Design data collection to require minimal additional effort from front-line staff. If recording takes too long, compliance drops and data quality suffers.

Standardise Recording: Use consistent categories, drop-down fields, and outcome definitions so that data from different staff and teams can be aggregated meaningfully.

The best impact data is a by-product of good service delivery, not a separate task.

Pre- and Post-Measurement

To demonstrate that your programmes cause change rather than simply coincide with it, measure outcomes before and after engagement.

Baseline Assessment: Capture the resident's situation at the start of engagement using standardised measures relevant to the programme.

Progress Tracking: Record milestones and changes during the programme, not just the final outcome.

Exit Assessment: Measure the same indicators at the end of engagement to quantify change.

Follow-Up: Where possible, check whether outcomes are sustained 6–12 months after engagement ends.

Pre-post measurement is the minimum standard for credible outcome reporting — without baselines, you are reporting activity rather than impact.

Qualitative Evidence

Numbers alone do not tell the full story. Qualitative evidence brings impact data to life.

Resident Stories: With consent, collect and share resident stories that illustrate the journey from challenge to outcome.

Staff Reflections: Front-line staff often observe changes that standardised measures miss — capture these observations.

Partner Feedback: External partners such as health services, job centres, or schools can provide evidence of wider impact.

Photography and Video: Visual evidence is powerful for reports and communications, though always obtain informed consent.

The most compelling impact reports combine robust data with authentic human stories.

Step 3: Calculate Social Value

Social value measurement translates your outcomes into monetary terms, enabling comparison with investment and communication of value to stakeholders.

Using the HACT Social Value Bank

The Social Value Bank is the sector standard for monetising community outcomes in housing.

How It Works: The Social Value Bank assigns monetary values to specific outcomes based on the impact on an individual's wellbeing. For example, moving from unemployment into employment has an associated wellbeing value of approximately £13,000 per person per year.

Robust Methodology: Values are derived from large-scale national datasets and established wellbeing valuation techniques, giving them academic credibility.

Deadweight Adjustment: The Social Value Bank includes deadweight adjustments — accounting for changes that would have happened anyway — which strengthens the credibility of your social value claims.

Practical Application: Multiply the number of residents achieving each outcome by the corresponding Social Value Bank value, applying appropriate deadweight, to calculate total social value generated.

Social value figures provide a powerful headline for board reports and funder communications, but always present them alongside the methodology and assumptions.

Social Return on Investment (SROI)

SROI compares the social value generated with the investment made, expressed as a ratio.

Calculate Investment: Include all costs — staff time, programme delivery, overheads, and any resident expenses.

Calculate Social Value: Use the method above to quantify outcomes in monetary terms.

Express as Ratio: Divide social value by investment. A ratio of 3:1 means every pound invested generated three pounds of social value.

Sector Benchmarks: Well-run housing association community programmes typically achieve SROI ratios between 2:1 and 10:1, depending on programme type and scale.

SROI is particularly useful for justifying continued investment and comparing the efficiency of different programmes.

Step 4: Produce Compelling Reports

Data and analysis are only valuable if they are communicated effectively to the right audiences.

Structure Your Reports

A good impact report follows a clear structure that guides the reader from context through evidence to conclusions.

Executive Summary: Lead with headline figures — total residents supported, key outcomes achieved, overall social value generated.

Context: Briefly describe the communities you serve, the challenges they face, and why your programmes exist.

Programme Descriptions: For each major programme, describe what you did, who you reached, and what outcomes were achieved.

Evidence: Present outcome data clearly, using charts and infographics rather than dense tables where possible.

Case Studies: Include 3–5 resident stories that illustrate impact in human terms.

Learning: Be honest about what worked less well and what you plan to change — this builds credibility.

Forward Look: Describe how findings will inform future strategy and investment.

Reports that tell a story are more engaging than reports that simply present data.

Automate Where Possible

Manual report compilation is time-consuming and error-prone. Technology can help.

Real-Time Dashboards: Use software that generates live dashboards showing programme activity and outcomes, reducing the need for periodic manual compilation.

Automated Data Aggregation: Case management systems that aggregate individual case data into programme-level and organisation-level reports save significant staff time.

Template Reports: Create report templates that pull data automatically, requiring only narrative additions from staff.

Regular Cadence: Generate monthly or quarterly reports rather than relying on annual reports alone, enabling more timely decision-making.

Automation reduces the reporting burden and increases the frequency and accuracy of impact communication.

Tailor for Audiences

Different stakeholders need different versions of the same information.

Board Reports: Strategic dashboards with trend data, risk indicators, and social value totals, typically 5–10 pages.

Funder Reports: Outcome-focused reports aligned with grant conditions, including cost-per-outcome analysis.

Resident Reports: Accessible summaries using plain language, infographics, and "you said, we did" formatting.

Regulatory Submissions: Standardised data in required formats, with supporting evidence of engagement.

One size does not fit all — invest in tailoring reports to maximise their impact with each audience.

Common Pitfalls

Measuring Activities Not Outcomes

Counting the number of events held or residents contacted without tracking what changed as a result.

The Problem: Activity data shows what you did but not whether it made a difference.

The Fix: Always pair activity metrics with outcome metrics. "We ran 12 financial capability workshops" is activity; "47 residents reduced their debt by an average of £2,300" is outcome.

Over-Claiming Impact

Attributing outcomes entirely to your programmes without accounting for other factors.

The Problem: Claims that lack credibility undermine trust with sophisticated stakeholders.

The Fix: Use deadweight adjustments, be transparent about methodology, and acknowledge limitations.

Inconsistent Data Collection

Different staff recording data differently, or data collection dropping off after an initial push.

The Problem: Inconsistent data cannot be aggregated reliably and undermines report accuracy.

The Fix: Embed data collection in workflows, use standardised fields and categories, and monitor compliance as a management responsibility.

Annual-Only Reporting

Producing one annual report and treating impact measurement as a yearly exercise.

The Problem: By the time you report, the data is old, and opportunities to course-correct have been missed.

The Fix: Report quarterly at minimum and use real-time dashboards for ongoing monitoring.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to set up impact reporting?

The investment depends on your starting point and ambition. At minimum, you need a clear framework (free to develop internally), data collection processes (can be built into existing case management software), and staff time for analysis and reporting. Purpose-built software like Plinth significantly reduces the ongoing cost by automating data collection and report generation. Budget for initial framework development plus ongoing staff time of approximately 0.5–1 FTE depending on organisation size.

Do we need to use the HACT Social Value Bank?

The Social Value Bank is the most widely recognised framework in the housing sector, which makes it valuable for credibility and benchmarking. However, it is not the only option, and not all outcomes are covered. Some housing associations use bespoke frameworks or supplement the Social Value Bank with additional measures. The key principle is that whatever methodology you use should be transparent, consistent, and defensible.

How do we get front-line staff to collect data consistently?

Staff compliance with data collection improves when three conditions are met: they understand why the data matters (connect it to outcomes for residents, not just organisational reporting); the process is quick and integrated into existing workflows (not a separate task); and they see the data being used (share reports back with teams so they can see the impact of their work). Technology that makes recording easy, such as mobile-friendly case management tools, also makes a significant difference.

What if our impact numbers are not impressive?

Honest reporting of modest outcomes is more credible than inflated claims. If outcomes are lower than expected, use this as learning — investigate why, adjust programmes, and report on the improvements you are making. Stakeholders, including funders and regulators, value honesty and a commitment to learning over unrealistic headline figures. Over time, this approach builds more trust than cherry-picking favourable data.

How do we benchmark against other housing associations?

The National Housing Federation publishes sector-wide data on community investment. HACT provides benchmarking through the Social Value Bank user community. The TSM data published by the Regulator of Social Housing enables direct comparison on satisfaction measures. Participate in sector networks and benchmarking clubs to share learning with peers.

Recommended Next Pages

• The Complete Guide to Community Engagement for Housing Associations – Build the engagement programmes that generate impact to report on.

• Case Management for Housing Associations: Best Practices – Structured case management supports systematic data collection for impact reporting.

• Housing Association Community Software vs Generic CRM – Choose the right tools for tracking and reporting community impact.

• Housing Associations – How Plinth helps housing associations track and report on community impact.

Last updated: February 2026

For more information about impact reporting tools for housing associations, contact our team or schedule a demo.