The findings come from the Regulator for Social Housing’s (RSH) Value for Money Report.

In particular, capital reinvestment into existing homes has increased by 15% to £3.8bn.

However, there was a more cautious approach in the year due to economic and policy uncertainty — overall reinvestment into new homes fell by 4% to £11bn.

At an aggregate level, the sector delivered 53,330 new homes of which 48,548 were classified as social housing.

The RSH has praised this, despite the challenging environment facing housing associations.

Persistent cost pressures continue to dampen the overall operating margin (which includes social housing activities) as some providers struggle to offset rising costs through net rental income alone.

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Despite stabilisation across some parts of the sector, the median operating margin overall was 17.4% which remains below the long-term average of 18.5%.

The sector’s headline cost per unit continued to outpace the general rate of inflation, albeit rising at a lower rate compared to previous years. The reported median headline cost increased by 11% to £5,690 per unit which was largely driven by maintenance and major repair and management costs.

“Landlords need to be open about how well they are delivering value for money and show evidence that they are meeting the requirements of the VFM Standard,” said Will Perry, director of strategy at the RSH.

“This includes clear and transparent reporting in their accounts of their performance and setting out improvement plans where they have not delivered as intended.

“We will continue checking that landlords are meeting the standard through our inspections and if we do not see enough evidence-based assurance, it will be reflected in our regulatory judgements.”