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Local authority housing income and expenditure 1997-98 to 2008-09
19/08/2008
Statistics on local authority housing income and expenditure have been released today by Scotland's Chief Statistician.
The bulletin provides information about housing debt, supervision and management costs, repairs and maintenance costs, direct spending on capital works and rental income.
The main points from the bulletin are:
- Average council rent in 2008-09 is £50.51 per week, ranging from £39.40 per week in Moray to £64.44 in Edinburgh
- Since 1997-98 council rents have increased by around 1 per cent per year in real terms
- Average expenditure on management and maintenance is expected to be £1,766 per house, an increase of 5.5 per cent or £92 per house over 2007-08
- Within this total, supervision and management costs are expected to be £673 per house in 2008-09, an increase of £51 per house or 8.2 per cent over 2007-08; and repairs and maintenance costs are expected to be £1,093 per house in 2008-09, an increase of £41 per house or 3.9 per cent over 2007-08
- Councils project that they will lose around £18 million due to voids in 2008-09. This represents 2.1 per cent of standard rent income and is at about the same level as last year
- Rent arrears at March 31, 2008 represented 4.3 per cent of standard rental income. The scale of rent arrears varies widely between councils, from an estimated 1.1 per cent of standard rental income in West Lothian at 31 March 2008 to 9.5 per cent of standard rental income in Aberdeen City
- Housing debt in Scotland is expected to increase by 5 per cent in the year to March 2009
- Shetland and Edinburgh continue to have the highest amount of debt - £26,857 per house and £14,517 respectively at March 31, 2009, Orkney continues to debt free, and of the remaining councils Falkirk has the lowest debt per house - £1,969 per house
- Local authorities' housing capital expenditure is projected to total £505.7 million in 2008-09, an increase of £51.9 million (11.4 per cent increase) over 2007-08. The very large increase in Midlothian's capital expenditure over the past few years - from £8.7 million in 2005-06 to a planned £44.5 million in 2008-09 - mainly reflects the council's new house building programme