Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

The survey sought to collect statistics on
possession actions from associations having
recently made use of Ground 8 . In practice, the
statistics submitted here were clearly somewhat
incomplete . Even for 2007-08 almost a quarter of
the 56 associations reporting recent use of Ground
8 did not, or were unable to, provide figures . Data
for years prior to 2007-08 was even less complete .
Based on the data collected for 2007-08, however,
Table 5 .12 shows that almost a quarter of the
claims issued in court by the relevant associations
involved Ground 8 . In only a very small proportion of
Table 5.12 – Associations having made use of Ground 8 from 2006-08 –
Grounds under which arrears possession cases entered in
court in 2007-08
Ground 8
Region Alone Total Other* Total
London 134 895 3,590 4,467
South East 7 107 570 677
South West 0 0 82 82
Central 6 240 1,178 1,564
North 22 747 426 1,438
Total 169 1,989 5,846 8,228
Source: Online survey
*Assured tenancies where action not taken under Ground 8, also includes secure tenancies
claims was Ground 8 used alone . Even the relatively
small national figure shown here (169) is largely
accounted for by a single London association,
which recorded 114 cases of this, kind in 2007-08 .
Whereas responding HAs invoked Ground 8 in
relation to almost 2,000 claims issued in 2007-
08 only 189 evictions were reportedly carried out
under these powers (see Table 5 .13) . However,
in assessing the significance of this figure in a
national context two factors need to be borne in
mind . First, as noted above, only just over three
Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector 79