29 March 2023
Savills HRA research
Research into expenditure within the Housing Revenue Account
This report finds that the funding pot used by local authorities to deliver housing services and building safety is likely to drop into significant deficit in the next two to three years. The combined impact of rising prices, new regulation and four years of enforced rent cuts that ended only in 2020 have stretched the Housing Revenue Account – the ring-fenced money collected mostly from rents that councils are allowed to use for housing services – to the limit.
Meanwhile, the burden being placed on local authorities to meet national policy goals such as the decarbonisation of homes and increased domestic energy efficiency is rising, but with insufficient government funding and little prospect of HRA funds being able to fill the gap.
Research into expenditure within the Housing Revenue Account is the final report of a three-topic research project that looks at the policy, financial and technical operation of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), the source of funding for the management and maintenance of council-owned housing.
Savills Affordable Housing Consultancy was jointly appointed to carry out the research by the Local Government Association (LGA), the Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH) and the National Federation of ALMOs (NFA).
Read the full report here: