Social housing arrears 40% higher in areas with tighter local restrictions, survey shows

Earlier this week Inside Housing reported that a number of large housing associations, including Notting Hill Genesis and Platform Housing Group, had experienced an increase in arrears in the six months up to September this year.

HouseMark’s survey also revealed that the number of lettings being carried out by the social housing sector in October increased by 22%.

But vacancy rates were still 36% higher than they were during 2019/20, representing 11,500 empty homes across the UK.

HouseMark predicts the sector lost £31.5m in income due to the drop in lettings activity during the pandemic.

Since August, repairs have increased by over 30%, however completion rates for emergency and non-emergency jobs declined slightly in October from 84% to 83%.

This is the eight month in a row that HouseMark has published its survey looking into how landlords are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Together, the 115 housing associations, councils and ALMOs which responded to this month’s survey manage more than 1.3 million homes and employ more than 40,000 staff.

Commenting on this month’s analysis, Laurice Ponting, chief executive of HouseMark, said: “Significant challenges remain for income lines impacted by arrears, empty homes and delays to development programmes.

“Coupled with the increase in reported repairs alongside the potential for further service disruption and increased operating costs, landlords will need to move quickly to understand the impact on their business and take mitigating action.

“With some landlords set to be hit significantly harder than others, understanding performance in relation to peers will be crucial.

“The ongoing crisis response is adding to an already complex agenda being managed by boards and executives – we will continue to help our members and the UK sector understand the wider impact, as well as contextualise their own performance, in anything but ‘normal’ times.”