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

9. Rent arrears and the rents written-off (charts 10, 11) (tables 16a, 16c, 17a, 17c, 19a, 19b, 20)

9.1 Total rent arrears on all HRA properties at 31 March 2023 was £114m, a rise of £12.5m (12.3%) since 31 March 2022. Nationally, rent arrears at 31 March 2022 represent 8.6% of Standard Rental Income on all properties on the HRA compared with 7.8% at 31 March 2022 and is the highest value recorded over the past decade.

9.2 From 2008-09 the statistics collected from Local Authorities have separately identified rent arrears on dwellings, from rent arrears in other types of HRA property.

9.3 As at March 2023, rent arrears on council dwellings was £110m, up £10.5m (10.6%) on last year, representing 8.4% of Standard Rental Income from these dwellings. Rent arrears on dwellings varied from 16.5% of Standard Rental Income from dwellings in Midlothian to 1.2% in East Renfrewshire.

9.4 At 31 March 2023 there were 111,618 council tenants in arrears, an increase of 1,272 tenants (a 1.2% increase) compared to 31 March 2022. The number of former tenants in arrears increased by 1,799 (a 1.0% increase) from 29,854 at March 2022 to 30,163 as at March 2023.

9.5 In 2022-23 budgets, councils wrote-off £10.5m of outstanding rent as unrecoverable (this represents 0.8% of Standard Rental Income) compared to £11.7m in the previous year. Write-offs for 2022-23 varied from none in Clackmannanshire, Dundee City, East Dunbartonshire and the Orkney Island to £1.4m in North Lanarkshire. The amount of arrears written-off by councils can be influenced by councils’ accounting policies and judgements on whether arrears are recoverable.