You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Social housing arrears drop for first time since start of COVID-19 outbreak
Rent arrears among social landlords have fallen for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic hit the UK, a survey has found.
Data gathered by HouseMark shows that median sector-wide arrears stood at 3.64% of overall rental income at the end of July – a slight reduction of 0.05% percentage points since June but still well above pre-pandemic rates.
Arrears levels had previously risen month on month since March, when the average figure stood at 2.99%.
The value of lost income to arrears across the sector surged by an estimated £100m within the first month of the outbreak, a previous HouseMark survey found.
Anecdotal evidence from housing associations, councils and ALMOs points to pockets of arrears increases such as in arrears where a large local firm shuts down, the business intelligence service said.
Economic damage caused by the COVID-19 crisis has led to a 2.6 million increase in people claiming Universal Credit, while another 9.6 million workers are on furlough.
The government’s furlough scheme will end on 31 October.
READ MORE
Based on survey responses from 140 social landlords managing a combined 1.4 million homes, the data also shows that key services, such as repairs and lettings, continue to stabilise after the lockdown.
Reported non-emergency repairs increased by 20% in July, with the percentage of repairs completed rising from 62% to 74% – representing an estimated 2.6 million jobs.
However, only one in 10 landlords completed more non-emergency repairs than were reported over the month, leading HouseMark to predict the backlog will not be cleared for much of the sector until the end of March 2021.
Lettings are now at around 90% of pre-lockdown levels, the survey found, with just under 30,000 completed in July.
But HouseMark still expects the sector to lose as much as £32m to increased voids up to the end of December.
More than 90% of social landlords reported actively working on digitally transforming services as a result of the pandemic, while 96% said they are set to embrace home working in some form over the longer term.
Laurice Ponting, chief executive of HouseMark, said: “As the pandemic develops into a pattern of universal anti-viral measures across the UK punctuated with local outbreaks, we are starting to see the sector modify its plans for the future as remote contact, social distancing and home working look set to stay for many months to come.
“Demand for services has returned, but there is still much work to do clearing backlogs before the sector can feel a fuller sense of recovery and landlords will need to prioritise how they will use resources to meet this demand in the coming months.”
