Rent arrears falling in Doncaster but a challenge still remains for the council

Following on from Mayor Ros Jones’ announcement for a 12 week rent break for council house tenants, 567 residents took up the offer back in March when the pandemic hit.

In this group, tenants had arrears of £144,000 at March 23 when the country went into lockdown but as of October 12, this had increased to £262,000, an increase of £118,000.

But despite this, bosses say they are around £57,000 away from levels before the Covid-19 lockdown began back in March.

The current position on restrictions included the lifting of the national ban on evictions and legal action from September.

But housing chiefs said all cases already in the system from March and April have been cancelled, and new applications or reactivation notices are required along with a completed ‘Covid-19 related impact assessment’.

St. Leger Homes is also said to be experiencing delays through the courts as they work through their backlogs with fewer sitting days.

Bosses added that minimum periods for notices, usually one month, were extended to three months and have now been extended to six months before any legal action can be taken.

Nigel Feirn, head of finance and business assurance at St. Leger Homes, said: “As a consequence of the first lockdown, many tenants found themselves under considerable financial pressure including as a result of losing employment or being furloughed.

“In anticipation of these pressures in late March, the mayor’s pledge of a twelve weeks rent ‘holiday’ to offer support to those affected by the Covid19 lockdown was announced.

“These factors contributed to an initial increase in arrears from the year end position.

“Despite these restrictions, over the last six months we have continued our ‘business as usual’ approach to take every opportunity to recover the arrears position this year with robust arrears pursuance work, balanced with excellent advice to support tenants to be able to pay their rent.

“Joined-up working continues between the Income Management and Tenancy Sustainability teams to focus on effective recovery actions and positive outcomes and we will continue to look for creative ways to deliver our services in the current environment.”

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