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Revealed: 27 housing associations used furlough scheme during three-month period
Twenty-seven of the largest landlords in the country have used the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in recent months, analysis has found.
Analysis of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) furlough scheme data by Inside Housing has found that nearly 30 housing associations received as much as £6.38m for furloughed staff between December 2020 and February 2021. The analysis focuses on housing associations with a minimum stock count of 10,000 homes.
The £6.38m is the maximum amount that these organisations could have received according to the data, which is sorted into bands as opposed to specific figures. The lower estimate of cash received stands at £1.33m.
The housing association that received the most cash from the scheme was Sanctuary Housing, which was handed between £600,000 and £1.25m.
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Large care provider Anchor Hanover was given the second highest amount of funding, receiving between £160,00 and £375,000.
Peabody was the third largest beneficiary of the scheme, which will run until 30 September, as it received between £125,000 and £250,000 from the Treasury.
Peabody, Anchor Hanover and Sanctuary said they used the furlough scheme for staff who were shielding or could not carry out their roles due to government restrictions and that they topped up the furlough contributions so that everyone received full pay (see full responses below).
The data shows that housing associations have become more reliant on the scheme over the three-month period. The maximum amount claimed in December 2020 stood at £595,000, but this rose sharply to £1.79m in January 2021, before jumping again to £3.19m in February.
Of the 27 social landlords using the scheme, five belonged the G15 group of London’s largest landlords, including L&Q, Notting Hill Genesis, Peabody, Hyde and Optivo.
Also in the top five users of the scheme was 13,000-home care specialist Accord, which recently completed a merger with GreenSquare to become GreenSquareAccord. Despite being the third smallest landlord in terms of stock, Accord received the fourth largest amount of furlough cash from government: up to £125,000.
It told Inside Housing that it followed government guidance around shielding and its own risk assessments, which saw frontline colleagues who were shielding and could not be redeployed being furloughed.
The landlord added: “The majority of these work in our care and support business, which has of course been particularly affected by challenges brought about by the pandemic – this part of our organisation employs over 2,500 people to deliver three million hours of care every year. Others affected were mainly colleagues at our advanced manufacturing/construction factory facility and in our estates and maintenance teams.”
North West-based landlord Plus Dane Housing, which owns and manages 13,000 homes, received between £50,000 to £110,000 via the scheme. A spokesperson for the association told Inside Housing that during the three-month period it had 14 staff members on flexible furlough and 22 on full furlough. They added that a large portion of those on furlough were shielding.
Inside Housing reported last year that thousands of housing association staff had been furloughed at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
Housing associations that used the furlough scheme between December 2020 and February 2021
| Employer name | Total upper amount claimed band – December 2020 | Total upper amount claimed band – January 2021 | Total upper amount claimed band – February 2021 | Cumulative total |
| Sanctuary Housing | £250,000 | £500,000 | £500,000 | £1,250,000 |
| Anchor Hanover | £25,000 | £100,000 | £250,000 | £375,000 |
| Peabody | £50,000 | £100,000 | £100,000 | £250,000 |
| Accord (now GreenSquareAccord) | £25,000 | £50,000 | £50,000 | £125,000 |
| Incommunities | £10,000 | £50,000 | £50,000 | £110,000 |
| Plus Dane Housing | £10,000 | £50,000 | £50,000 | £110,000 |
| Notting Hill Genesis | £50,000 | £50,000 | £100,000 | |
| Hyde | £25,000 | £25,000 | £25,000 | £75,000 |
| Wythenshawe Community Housing Group | £25,000 | £25,000 | £25,000 | £75,000 |
| The Wrekin Housing Group | £25,000 | £25,000 | £25,000 | £75,000 |
| L&Q | £10,000 | £25,000 | £25,000 | £60,000 |
| Optivo | £10,000 | £25,000 | £25,000 | £60,000 |
| Citizen | £10,000 | £25,000 | £25,000 | £60,000 |
| Bromford | £25,000 | £25,000 | £50,000 | |
| Longhurst Group | £25,000 | £25,000 | £50,000 | |
| Torus | £10,000 | £10,000 | £25,000 | £45,000 |
| Great Places Housing Group | £10,000 | £10,000 | £25,000 | £45,000 |
| Platform Housing Group | £10,000 | £25,000 | £35,000 | |
| Pobl | £10,000 | £25,000 | £35,000 | |
| Riverside | £10,000 | £25,000 | £35,000 | |
| Stonewater | £10,000 | £10,000 | £10,000 | £30,000 |
| Housing Plus Group | £10,000 | £10,000 | £10,000 | £30,000 |
| One Manchester | £10,000 | £10,000 | £10,000 | £30,000 |
| Paradigm Housing Group | £10,000 | £10,000 | £20,000 | |
| One Vision Housing | £10,000 | £10,000 | £20,000 | |
| Regenda | £10,000 | £10,000 | £20,000 | |
| Yarlington Housing Group | £10,000 | £10,000 | £20,000 |
Housing associations’ responses in full
A spokesperson for Sanctuary said: “Sanctuary has more than 13,000 employees – their safety and that of our residents has been our first priority throughout the pandemic. We chose to furlough people who were unable to work, whether that was because they were shielding or physically unable to do their job. A large number of the staff we furloughed work in frontline care and support roles and could not have been redeployed in non-frontline roles. We topped up the furlough contribution so that everyone received full pay.”
A spokesperson for Peabody said: “The furlough scheme has helped us protect some of our people who were unable to carry out their role due to government restrictions. This is in line with the intention of the scheme and we topped up the wages of colleagues so they received 100% of their usual salary while they were unable to work.”
A spokesperson for Plus Dane Housing said: “Plus Dane utilised the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme between December 2020 and February 2021 for a small percentage of colleagues who were impacted by COVID restrictions that meant they could not fulfil all or some of their role.
“We utilised full and flexible furlough to support those shielding, unable to work full contractual hours due to schools being closed or where the function was not able to be performed during lockdown.”
A spokesperson for Anchor Hanover said: “Anchor Hanover is a not-for-profit provider of housing and care for people in later life, serving more than 65,000 residents across almost 1,700 locations. Our residential care services employ the majority of the 9,000-strong workforce, providing services to residents at 114 care homes.
“From the outset of the pandemic, we made a commitment to significantly invest in supporting colleagues. Following government advice regarding social distancing, protecting older people and those at higher risk from the virus, we proactively moved to protect colleagues that fell into these categories from financial hardship by using the furlough scheme. Of the colleagues furloughed, most worked in our care homes – due to the nature of the work it was impossible for these colleagues to work from home.
“To support colleagues further, we launched our own hardship scheme of interest-free loans and enhanced sick pay to further support any of our colleagues facing difficulty due to required time off work if they had to self-isolate or if they were displaying symptoms of COVID-19. The health, well-being and safety of our colleagues and residents remains our paramount priority.”
Stuart Fisher, chief finance officer and deputy chief executive at GreenSquareAccord, said: “Our absolute focus throughout the past year or so has been on the safety of all customers and colleagues – and particularly those defined as being extremely vulnerable.
“Government guidance on shielding and our own risk assessments resulted in some frontline colleagues who were unable to carry out their role, or be redeployed, being furloughed.
“The majority of these work in our care and support business, which has of course been particularly affected by challenges brought about by the pandemic – this part of our organisation employs over 2,500 people to deliver three million hours of care every year.
“Others affected were mainly colleagues at our advanced manufacturing/construction factory facility and in our estates and maintenance teams.”
