HRA Rulebook Reviewed As Councils Raid Budgets

The government is to re-write its rulebook on council housing finance after an Inside Housing investigation uncovered evidence of widespread raids on maintenance budgets. The analysis of 115 council landlords’ financials unearthed an armoury of tactics employed by authorities to shore up other cash-strapped council services with rents and welfare benefits from housing revenue accounts, which are supposed to be ring-fenced. A spokesperson for the CLG said it was ‘absolutely clear that the ring-fenced HRA is not to be used to supplement the general fund’. Ministers had ‘powers to direct a council to return money to the HRA if evidence of its abuse merits it,’ she added. In the past weeks, officials have revived a major review of the 19-year-old housing finance rulebook which defines legitimate charges on the HRA, Inside Housing understands. Read more on Inside Housing.