HouseMark Data

Hexagon is a member of HouseMark, a national benchmarking company. Together with other Housing Associations we supply performance information and costs to HouseMark on an annual basis.

HouseMark have developed a benchmarking dashboard. This allows us to easily see how we are performing, in terms of value for money, against a range of services.

Click here to view the HouseMark Dashboard.

Before reading the information at the HouseMark page there are a few things that are worth explaining.

The Dashboard

The initial screen gives a Value for Money summary, plus a series of links to more detailed areas of service delivery. It is generally easy to navigate, but a few options are worth noting.

The screen allows the user to view the data either as a grid or in a list; the latter makes comments more easily visible where they have been added.

The ‘compare with’ option allows users to compare different groups; the ‘peer group’ is selected by the landlord – for Hexagon, this is housing associations in London with fewer than 7500 homes.

For each of the service options, there are two aspects:
– The + gives a breakdown of the data in the VFM chart.
– The → gives access to a service dashboard.

A Few Terms and Phrases

HouseMark tends to use quite a lot of jargon and abbreviations, so we have provided the list below to help you understand the terms they use.

Term Meaning
CPP Cost Per Property
Direct employee costs In the main, staff wages, pensions, national insurance, car allowances.
Direct non-pay costs Other costs that relate to providing the service. For example, for rent collection and arrears this would include:
• Bank and other charges for rent payments.
• External benefits advice that Hexagon ‘buys in’.
• Legal costs.
LowerQ Lower Quartile – the lower 25% of housing organisations
Median The mid-point in a set of data.
Overhead costs Costs relating to offices, senior staff, etc.
Rank Where a housing organisation is placed in the sample (where 1 is the best).
Sample size The number of housing organisations for which there is data.
UpperQ Upper Quartile – the top 25% of housing organisations