Scottish Government

STATISTICAL BULLETIN HSG/2002/2
HOUSING SERIES
Local Authority Housing Income and Expenditure 2000-01 to 2002-03

July 2002

A Scottish Executive National Statistics Publication

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1. This report provides factual information on local authority housing income and expenditure. The source of the data is local authorities Housing Revenue Account (HRA) returns. Information on rent arrears ( table 10) is taken from a separate rent arrears return.

2. A summary of HRA income and expenditure for 2001-02 and 2002-03 is shown at table 1. A detailed breakdown of this is provided at table 2.

Housing Stock Transfer

3. Scottish Borders Council is expected to transfer its housing stock to Scottish Borders Housing Association at around the end of September. As a result, no data in respect of Scottish Borders Council has been included in the 2002-03 tables. Glasgow City Council is also expected to transfer its housing stock around the end of 2002, however, data in respect of Glasgow is been included in the 2002-03 tables.

Stock levels

4. Total council housing stock is estimated to reduce by around 4.7% from 532,966 at 30 September 2001 to 507,473 at 30 September 2002 ( table 3). This is due to a combination of Right to Buy sales, demolitions and the stock transfer in Scottish Borders.

Rents

5. The average rents charged by individual authorities are shown in table 4. Rents are estimated to increase by an overall average of 4.3% from 39.30 per house per week in 2001-02 to 41.02 in 2002-03. The highest rent level at 48.46 per week is recorded in Glasgow. Midlothian's rents remain the lowest in Scotland at 31.38 per week. A comparison with average rent levels in English local authorities is shown below.

6. In 2002-03 local authorities estimate that the rent rebate subsidy will total around 679 million (almost 63% of total rental income). Table 5 illustrates the proportion of rental income raised through rent rebates in each authority.

Management and Maintenance (MM) Expenditure

7. MM expenditure is made up of expenditure on supervision and management (mainly staffing costs) and the repair and maintenance of the housing stock. The average MM expenditure of Scottish local authorities is estimated to increase by 5.7% from 1,229 per annum per house in 2001-02 to 1,299 in 2002-03. MM expenditure ranges from 932 in East Ayrshire to 1,659 per house in Glasgow ( table 6). Differing accounting practices mean that the figures shown for individual authorities may not always be directly comparable.

8. Within overall MM expenditure:

8.1 average supervision and management (SM) costs are estimated to increase by 8.4% from 404 per house in 2001-02 to 438 in 2002-03. SM costs range from 282 per house in Comhairle nan Eilean Siar to 634 per house in Argyll & Bute ( table 7). As local authorities differ in the extent to which central administration costs are included in SM expenditure, again individual figures may not always be directly comparable.

8.2 expenditure on repairs and maintenance (RM) is estimated to increase by 4.1% from 826 per house in 2001-02 to 860 per house in 2002-03 ( table 8). RM expenditure ranges from 543 per house in Aberdeenshire to 1,182 per house in Glasgow.

Rents Lost Because of Un-let Houses

9. Rents lost are estimated to reduce from 39.8 million in 2001-02 to 35.3 million in 2002-03 the current year ( table 9). The figures for some councils include rents lost on properties lying empty while awaiting demolition.

Rent Arrears

10. Total rent arrears were reported as having reduced from 60.4 million as at 31 December 2000 to 55.2 million as at 31 December 2001. Details on rent arrears and rent arrears written off are provided in tables 10 and 11. Again direct comparisons between councils may not always be meaningful due to different policies on rent write off.

Housing Revenue Account Surpluses

11. Tables 12 and 13 provide details of housing revenue account surpluses. Councils continue to use revenue income to boost their capital expenditure. CFCR (capital funded from current revenue) was around 104 million in 2001-02 and is estimated to be 109 million in 2002-03. A revenue balance of over 54 million was carried forward from 2001-02 to 2002-03.

Capital Debt

12. Local authority housing debt in Scotland reduced by 150 million between April 2001 and April 2002. The total HRA debt as at 1 April 2002 was estimated to be 3,383 million. Despite the overall reduction in debt, due to the fall in stock numbers, the average debt per council house has increased slightly from 6,387 per house in April 2001 to 6,504 per house at April 2002. There continues to be a wide disparity between councils, Angus, West Lothian, Midlothian, East Lothian and Orkney's debt per house is less than 3,000 per house compared to Shetland's debt of 26,278 per house ( table 14).

Capital Expenditure and Capital Receipts

13. Table 15 illustrates the level of authorities' total housing capital expenditure financed from all sources (i.e. new borrowing, usable receipts and capital funded from revenue income). HRA capital receipts, shown in table 16, arise mainly from the sale of council houses.

Scottish Executive Development Department
July 2002

Tables

Table 1 Consolidated Housing Revenue Account Income and Expenditure
Table 2 Housing Revenue Account Income and Expenditure
Table 3 Council House Stock
Table 4 Average Rents ( per house per week) in Descending Order
Table 5 Rental Income and Rent Rebate Subsidy
Table 6 Average Management and Maintenance ( per house per year) in Descending Order
Table 7 Average Supervision and Management Expenditure ( per house per year) in Descending Order
Table 8 Average Repairs and Maintenance Expenditure ( per house per year) in Descending Order
Table 9 Rents lost (as a result of un-let houses) as a Percentage of Standard Rental Income in Descending Order
Table 10 Rent Arrears as a Percentage of Standard Rental Income in Descending Order
Table 11 Rent Arrears Written Off (RAWO) as a Percentage of Standard Rental Income in Descending Order
Table 12 Housing Revenue Account Surpluses: 1998-99 to 2002-03
Table 13 Housing Revenue Account Surpluses: 2001-02 Near Actual and 2002-03 Budgets
Table 14 Outstanding Debt
Table 15 HRA Gross Capital Expenditure (inc. Capital Funded from Revenue (CFCR)
Table 16 HRA Capital Receipts