Regulator publishes latest quarterly report on the impact of COVID-19 on social landlords

The Scottish Housing Regulator today published the latest quarterly dashboard report, covering the period 1 July 2021 to 30 September 2021. This report is designed to help the Scottish Government and social landlords to understand the continuing impact of the Coronavirus pandemic and to support the work of the Social Housing Resilience Group.

Both RSLs and local authorities saw an increase in their respective level of rent arrears, with an aggregate increase from 5.9% at the end of the June 2021 to 6.2% at the end of September 2021. There were also increases in the number of Notice of Proceedings issued and court actions initiated by social landlords, although court actions remain below the levels in the year before the pandemic.

A higher number of homes became empty compared to the previous quarter, however there has been a 2% drop in the number of lets made by social landlords. The proportion of lets being made to people experiencing homelessness has fallen quarter to quarter; from 40% during quarter four of 2020/21 (January – March 2021) to 36% during quarter two of 2021/22 (July to September 2021). Local authorities continue to allocate a higher proportion of their lets to people experiencing homelessness compared to RSLs.

There was a small drop in the number of homeless applications to local authorities compared to the previous quarter. At the end of September 2021, 13,233 households were in temporary accommodation, up by 81 from the end of June 2021.

Social landlords provided the Regulator with a monthly return on a small set of key measures that focus on the main areas of impact on landlords’ operations during 2020/21. From April 2021, the frequency of the returns changed from monthly to quarterly.

Landlords are due to submit the next quarterly return on 24 January 2022.

View the quarterly dashboard and full data set from all landlords.