Social Housing Rents and Rent Arrears as at 31st March 2009

This Statistical Release presents information on the average weekly rents for wholly rented local authority (LA) and Registered Social Landlord (RSL) dwellings set at the beginning of April 2009, for the financial year 2009-10. It also includes information on the level of social housing rent arrears as at 31 March 2009.

The key points from the latest release are:

• Rent levels within the social housing sector have increased in recent years across all property types with the overall average rising by around 30 per cent between 2003-04 and 2009-10.
• Local authority rent levels continue to remain below those of the RSLs with an overall average per week of £61.33 for 2009-10, 7 per cent lower than the £65.40 average for RSLs.
• The highest overall rents for 2009-10 for both local authorities and RSLs are in Cardiff at £68.75 and £68.72 per week respectively whilst the lowest local authority rents are in Blaenau Gwent at £53.25 per week and the lowest RSL rents are in Gwynedd at £60.10 per week.
• At the end of March 2009 almost a third of all social housing tenants were in arrears though only 2 per cent were in arrears for more than 13 weeks. The highest proportion of tenancy arrears were seen in Torfaen (45 per cent) and the lowest in Wrexham (19 per cent).

Contact

Tel: 029 2082 5055
E-mail: stats.housing@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Next update

October 2010 (provisional - to be confirmed on the 'Due Out Soon' page)