The uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic affected the income of Registered Providers of Social Housing (RPs). Please click here to watch Part 2 of our recent ‘Ask The Leaders’ video series where four CEOs of RPs talk about the impact of the pandemic on their organisations.
Income is the lifeblood of RPs and ensuring an inflow of this has always been a challenge even before the pandemic struck. For some RPs, the challenge was alleviated with the pandemic resulting in the reduction of arrears due to furlough and an increase in benefits. On the other hand, some RPs saw arrears rise due to job losses.
The government’s plan to live with COVID-19 begs the question - how do RPs maximise income opportunities in a post-pandemic world? It is no secret that RPs do not have the luxury of increasing rent to match current market rates. However, RPs can direct their focus to the collection of rent and arrears. RPs may find that doing the following increases their collection rates:
- Allocating sufficient resources to the task of collecting rent and arrears
- Ensuring effective communication with tenants and benefits providers
- Offering support to tenants such as benefit advice, form filling, arrears management and debt counselling
- Investing in, and maintaining, good IT systems
- Regularly reviewing and updating rent and arrears collection policies
- Identifying arrears quickly and acting promptly to ensure that arrears do not increase
- Employing an effective system of identifying disrepair and carrying out repairs promptly with sufficient record-keeping
- Pursuing legal action where necessary and only as a last resort
Should you require legal advice and/or assistance, please feel free to contact the Housing and Regeneration Team at Brabners. To read more about the major challenges for RPs in a post-pandemic world, please click here.
