Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

of possession actions and evictions” . 43 A further
Housing Guide was issued in 2006 . The
introduction states that the guide:
“[…] sets out clearly the DCLG view, supported
by Housing Corporation regulatory guidance
emphasising that social landlords should seek
to maintain and sustain tenancies, rather than
terminate them and that eviction should be used as
a last resort . The Civil Justice Council have provided
a pre-action protocol relating to the proceedings for
claims made by a social landlord against a tenant
for possession due to rent arrears . The message
of that pre-action protocol reflects that contained
within this guidance that eviction proceedings
should be a last resort .” 44
Key recommendations within the guidance included
a focus on prevention, income maximisation,
improving staff training and, more particularly,
repeated the Housing Corporation circular’s
message that Ground 8 should be used only
as a last resort measure .
20
Two further guidance documents are also
relevant to mention here . First, following the
Audit Commission’s research on the use of direct
debits to collect council tax, councils and HAs
were recommended to adopt its use more widely
for the collection of rent . 45 Second, the income
management toolkit developed recently by the
Housing Quality Network includes 112 selfassessment
questions which reflect much of the
good practice discussed elsewhere . 46
Whilst it is unnecessary here to rehearse the detail
of these various guidelines and toolkits, they were
useful to the research as a source of benchmarking
criteria for the assessment of current practice and
of compliance with the PAP . More specifically,
when looking at associations, which use Ground 8,
the advice in these guides represents a useful set
of tools for understanding landlord policies
and practices .
43 ODPM (2005), Improving the Effectiveness of Rent Arrears Management: Good Practice Guidance, London: ODPM, p . 6 .
44 Department for Communities and Local Government (2006), Guide on Effective Rent Arrears Management, London: DCLG .
45 Audit Commission (2006), Improving Income Collection: Efficient collection of council tax, housing rent and other income by direct debit,
Local Government Summary, London: Audit Commission .
46 Newman, T . (2008), Income Management Toolkit, York: Housing Quality Network Rent Income Excellence Network .