Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Statistics: Scottish Local Authority Housing Income and Expenditure 1997-98 to 2022-23 (near actuals) & 2023-24 (budgeted estimates)

2. Introduction

2.1 This publication reports council housing income and expenditure. Trends are 1997-98 to 2022-23 (near actuals) to 2023-24 (budgeted estimates). Near actuals are un-audited. Councils use this data to monitor/ plan housing finances. The requirement to account for HRA is laid out in sections 203(1) and 204(4) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987. This publication is accompanied by tables and charts. Historical HRA data are available. Chart notes are at Annex A. Data are checked by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). Figure may be affected by rounding. 2.2 Six councils transferred their housing stock to the housing association sector including: Glasgow City, Dumfries and Galloway, the Scottish Borders, Argyll, and Bute, Na h-Eileanan Siar and Inverclyde. Therefore, data are not reported for these councils. Only five councils reported impacts of the Pandemic including: higher material and contractor costs, slippage in new house building, catch up on maintenance and delays moving people into properties.

2.3 Some of the capital investment figures at the end of this publication are taken from different Scottish Government sources including the Local Finance Return Capital and Revenue (LFR CR) statistics and the Local Government 2021-22 Provisional Outturn and 2022-23 Budget Estimates (POBE) statistics.

2.4 If there is a surplus (income exceeds expenditure) this may be transferred into the councils’ housing capital expenditure accounts for housing capital projects. Councils can borrow to fund capital expenditure but with tight restrictions. Revenue can be used for both revenue and capital projects, but capital can only be used for capital projects. Capital expenditure is additional to HRA expenditure.

An Official Statistics Publication for Scotland

2.5 These are official statistics. Official statistics are produced by crown bodies, those acting on behalf of crown bodies, or those specified in statutory orders, as defined in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. Scottish Government statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.