Empty council homes in East Devon have cost the district more than £1million in lost rent over the last two years, the authority has revealed.
A Devon council has reduced the number of its social housing properties that are empty as it seeks to ensure it earns more rental income, writes local democracy reporter Bradley Gerrard.
East Devon District Council (EDDC) lost more than £583,000 in the 12 months to the beginning of April because the properties were empty, but that was less than the £786,000 lost for the same reason in the prior financial year.
The data comes from a report discussed by East Devon District Council’s housing review board on Thursday (April 24).
The most recent figure is equivalent to just over 2.5 per cent of potential £23.2 million rental income from social housing tenants, in line with target but well above the top quarter of social landlords.
The council would need to be missing out on less than 0.9 per cent of its social housing rent to be among the best 25 per cent of landlords on the empty, or void, properties measures.
The council also managed to make more of its 4,103 houses available. In the last financial year, 113 properties were unable to be rented out, but this figure has now dropped to 51.
Homes that can’t be rented out usually require significant improvement to bring them up to standard.
The report states that homes are spending less time empty between tenants, with average re-let times dropping to 122 days from 207 days last year.
Encouragingly for the council, it is also collecting nearly all of the rent owed from its social housing tenants.
Of the more than £22.6 million it could earn in the most recent financial year, just £307,000 was unpaid because tenants were in arrears. That’s equivalent to less than 1.4 per cent of total rent, and within the council’s target of 1.8 per cent.
That performance means it is in the top 25 per cent of social landlords in terms of rent collected.
Housing-related finances are ring-fenced, meaning fluctuations in income do not impact funding for its other services, which as a district council include planning and waste collection and recycling.
