Saving brick by brick
13 September 2012
In an effort to save millions of pounds, 32 housing associations joined a collective purchasing pilot scheme. Mark Smulian assesses the results
It’s quite a challenge to organise a collective purchasing scheme for housing associations. There are about 1,400 of them, they vary greatly in size, guard their independence jealously, are governed by volunteers, regulated by a quango, and are prone to bouts of introspection about whether they are real businesses.
In the 14 years since housing associations took...