Our approach

We have an an annual rental and other income of £242 million and by the end of the year we were managing 90,500 homes. By 31 March 2009 total rent and rates arrears were just over £14 million, a decrease of £81k.

Our approach to arrears recovery is to provide advice and support for those who cannot pay their rent and to take firm action against those who will not. A range of debt counselling/prevention arrangements are in place including help from the Citizen’s Advice Bureau.

Housing Benefit overpayments for both public and private tenants totalled £20.59m at March 2009; this includes amounts brought forward from previous years. We have two targets as regards recovering overpayments; first to recover 85% of new overpayments created during the year and by March 2009 we had recovered 84% and second to recover 45% of the amount outstanding at the start of the year plus any new overpayments created during the year and by March 2009 we had recovered 36%.

Most of the overpayments occur as a result of claimants not reporting changes in circumstances which affect the level of Housing Benefit payable. This is usually unintentional but in some cases is fraudulent. During the year we introduced new payment facilities to make it simpler for customers to repay monies due including direct debits and repayment cards.