Renfrewshire Council's Finance and IT and Housing and Property Services departments jointly commissioned the Improvement Service to facilitate a peer review of rent collection during September 2008. Five councils participated in the review - East Ayrshire, City of Edinburgh, Falkirk, North Ayrshire and North Lanarkshire. The review was focused on rent collection, rent arrears, preventative measures and debt management.
The peer review is a supportive review facilitated by the Improvement Service, and carried out by knowledgeable and experienced officers from peer councils who are experiencing better results in the service being reviewed. The review takes place over a short period and the findings are based on an assessment of key policies, publications, information, published performance and financial information. Interviews and focus groups with employees, partner organisations and elected members are also included in the review.
The areas considered by the Peer Review Team were leadership and governance, performance management, stakeholder management and organisational development. Some of the recommendations are that:
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a Change Champion should be established within the service
- policy and procedures for early intervention and enforcement should be developed and consistently communicated
- the concept of a 'payment culture' should be reinforced amongst tenants
- consideration should be given to writing off housing debt where it becomes uneconomical for the Council to pursue the debt
- debtor profiling should be included in the Council's customer segmentation model which is under development
- the links between service performance and the individual performance of Arrears Officers should be strengthened
- clearly defined outcomes and outcome indicators should be established jointly by the service and tenancy support services, to measure the success and effectiveness of early intervention activity
- there is scope to increase direct debit uptake for rent payments
- additional short-term resources should be invested in the service to help reduce the number of live arrears cases
- consideration should be given to changing the procedure in place for the delivery of Notice of Proceedings of Recovery of Possessions
- Arrears Officers and Housing Officers should take on more responsibilities around maximising Housing Benefit take-up and equally the Benefits Visiting Officers and Housing Officers should take on more responsibilities relating to rent collection/rent recovery
- visits should be built into relevant stages of the rent recovery process, with Arrears Officers allocating more of their time to visits
- the service should explore the feasibility of agreeing a four-week timescale with the Sheriff Court for the hearing of incidental applications for rent recovery
- the service should consider introducing a reward and recognition scheme for employees, to provide incentives to reduce rent arrears
Renfrewshire Council has produced an action plan to progress the peer review recommendations.
A summary of the recommendations of the review is now available. The Peer Review Team has also produced a good practice guide which highlights good practice in rent collection across the peer councils and Renfrewshire Council. The Peer Review Framework will be launched shortly.
