§ Mr. McAllionTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he intends to introduce into Scotland arrangements similar to those announced recently for England and Wales whereby local authorities will be obliged to charge accumulated arrears of rent to other rent payers, through increasing their rents to cover the deficit in housing revenue accounts.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonLocal authorities in Scotland are required by paragraph 3(e) of schedule 15 to the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 to debit to their housing revenue accounts for each year the arrears of rent which have been written off in that year as irrecoverable. My right hon. and learned Friend has no plans to change this or other aspects of the financial management of local authority rent arrears.
§ Mr. McAllionTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what are the accumulated rent arrears owed to Scottish public housing authorities in March; and what was the figure in March of each of the five previous years.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonInformation on the accumulated rent arrears owed to Scottish public housing authorities is collected annually on the basis of arrears outstanding at 30 September. The amounts of arrears outstanding for each year from 1983 to 1988 are shown below:
£million 1983 118.0 1984 118.9 1985 119.9 1986 1 224.3 1987 126.7 1988 1 332.9 1 Includes rates arrears of two local authorities. 2 Includes unprocessed housing benefit awards for one authority. 3 Excludes arrears of two local authorities.