§ Mr. Peter Bruinvelsasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the latest available figures on local authority rent arrears; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. GowFigures collected by my Department show that on 31 March 1983 gross rent arrears due to local authorities in England and Wales totalled £176 million, of which £42 million were arrears of former tenants. The total represented 5 per cent. of the local authority rent roll and compares with arrears of £139 million or 4.4 per cent. of the rent roll a year earlier. These figures differ slightly from those published this week by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy because those local authorities which did not return details of rent arrears were followed up by my Department to obtain statistics which were as complete as possible.
The report by my Department, "Preventing Rent Arrears" contains valuable advice on the action landlord authorities can take to prevent and reduce rent arrears. Copies were sent to every local housing authority in October last. The research on which the report was based showed that while the average levels of arrears are higher in metropolitan than in non-metropolitan areas and highest of all in inner London, there are very wide variations in the scale of arrears among individual authorities with similar characteristics.
This suggests that the policy adopted by individual authorities towards rent arrears can make a significant impact. Lower levels of arrears were achieved by landlords who took prompt recovery action associated with effective advice to tenants about their benefit entitlement.