Guide to Local Rents data

Note on changes to 2007 RSR data

Every year all housing associations (HAs) registered with the Housing Corporation complete the Regulatory and Statistical Return (RSR), an annual census of the sector as at 31 March. There are two versions of the RSR: in general ‘large’ HAs that own and/or manage 1,000 or more homes complete the ‘long’ version and smaller HAs complete the ‘short’, less detailed version. Previous to 2007 the threshold was lower at 250 homes.

The RSR is divided into several parts – from 2002 the rent data are collected in Parts H and I. Part I requires HAs to report average net rents, service charges and target rent (for each bedsize) by every English local authority in which they own general needs stock. (Details of rents for supported housing are included in Part III of the Guide to Local Rents from 2005.) Any spatial analysis of rents therefore relies on data collected in this part. Part I is only included in the long version of the RSR, which means that small HAs do not complete this section.