Pandemic Blows £227m Hole In HRA Finances

Statistics on how English local authorities finances have been hit because of the pandemic show that HRAs lost a combined £165.8m in income between April and December 2020, with the majority of this coming through rent arrears. Over the same period, the crisis meant they had to fork out an extra £61.8m on things such as PPE and additional workforce costs. Unlike for other council services run through the General Fund, there has been no direct government support for HRAs to help deal with the impacts of coronavirus. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/pandemic-blows-227m-hole-in-hra-finances-69288?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60 

Helping Councils to Build More Homes

Answering the inevitable question at the CIH Conference in Manchester, Kris Hopkins gave the inevitable answer: the Government is not minded to lift council HRA debt caps any time soon. But he threw down a challenge: if councils can spend the extra £300 million borrowing approved in the last Autumn Statement in full and on time, he said, we can go back to the Chancellor with a much stronger case for more. The credibility of local government's call for freedom to borrow more depends on its ability to show that it has the will and the capacity to use the money effectively to deliver the extra new homes that are needed. Read more on the ARCH website.

Housing Revenue Accounts: Debts – Parliamentary Written Answer

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of the potential effect of further council house sales on the ability of local authorities to service housing revenue account debt.

Andrew Stunell: The Government have made clear that in reinvigorating the right to buy the viability of the housing revenue account must be maintained. We have laid regulations before Parliament that permit local authorities to retain from receipts obtained from additional right to buy sales a sum sufficient to cover the debt on those properties.