- The purpose of this Technical Note is to provide Elected Members with an update on East Dunbartonshire Council tenant’s rent arrears for the last financial year.
- For the financial year 2023/24 the rent arrears outcome was £774,164.51, which was significantly lower than the target of £990,000. This outcome was a decrease of £211,982.64 against the reported outcome for 2022/23 and has been achieved despite the current economic challenges being faced due to the ongoing cost of living crisis, as well as the moratorium on evictions (Within the temporary legislation, The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022, a moratorium on evictions was introduced which prohibited evictions of tenants for rent arrears below the amount of £2,250. This temporary legislation expired on 31 March 2024, with no level of rent arrears now required to pursue for eviction at court).
- The Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on rent arrears for all social landlords with arrears peeking at £1,075,252.98 at the year end 2020/21 for East Dunbartonshire Council. This was a significant increase on the year end reported outcome for 2019/20, which was £693,495.09.
- Work continues to maximise rental income with the aim of surpassing the pre Covid-19 levels to safeguard income and support reinvestment in tenant’s homes. This is prioritised by the service through a dedicated team, whose role is to actively pursue rent arrears and to provide support and advice to those tenants struggling to pay their rent.
- Over the last year the service was able to reintroduce almost all rent arrears actions, with the exception of escalated actions where the moratorium on evictions legislation had an effect. The service also:
- Introduced early intervention advice on rent charges, payment options and rent affordability to new tenants at the time of offer acceptance of their new tenancy in January 2023. This supports tenancy sustainment and assists alleviate early new tenancy debt accruing.
- Realigned Housing Officers patches demographically to ensure better use of resources in April 2023.
- Utilised the Hardship Fund where applicable for tenants’ accruing arrears through no fault of their own.
- Supported tenants on Universal Credit housing element through joint working with DWP Work Coaches by having a presence at Kirkintilloch Job Centre every Tuesday morning for appointments or drop in for tenants requiring additional support.
All of the above and the hard work of the team applying the rent arrears procedures has contributed the significant reduction of rent arrears over the last financial year.
6. For financial year 2024/25, the service will look to continue to reduce rent arrears further, utilising rent arrears procedures in full now for the first time since the outset of the pandemic where there are escalating rent arrears. The team adopt a firm but fair approach to tenants in rent arrears, provide advice and support to tenants who engage and/or referrals to wider support agencies where applicable and aim to have in place affordable and sustainable agreements with tenants in arrears. In the cases where rent arrears continue to rise, then the rent arrears actions are escalated to include legal action and eviction in the extreme cases where decree has been granted by court.