Psychologically informed rent collection, reducing evictions

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The context

South Lanarkshire Council is the fourth largest social landlord in Scotland, and the third largest stock-holding local authority. Between 2014 and 2017, evictions for arrears rose to the highest number on record (109). South Lanarkshire had gone from having one of the lowest authority arrears eviction rates in the country, to the seventh highest. The Council realised this trend was going in the wrong direction. The housing service was challenged to look afresh at whether eviction really was being used as a ‘last resort’, setting an initial goal not to evict any families with children.

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The intervention

The Council completed a full analysis of which households were being evicted and their journeys, entirely refocusing their eviction policy. That included a review of the content and format of standard letters, with a move away from dense text towards visual symbols. Officers were encouraged to re-engage with the original spirit of pre-action requirements and adopt the ethos that almost any problem can be solved “if we can get tenants to talk to us”. This shifted focus from adhering to a set of steps, to trying and testing multiple ways to engage people with debt, including a refreshed focus on support.

All officers received training on psychologically informed practice, and were encouraged to use this training when engaging with tenants in arrears. A panel was set up to review all repossession cases, with a mandatory step to liaise with the homelessness team. The expectation was that most cases would not be approved unless all routes were shown to have been exhausted.

The Council also recognised that even if officers managed to engage tenants, they still had little flexibility on rent collection. So they gave officers more autonomy and discretion when applying the escalation policy, for example, through use of rent holidays or reduced payments. They introduced a sustainment fund for one-off payments to arrears. That enabled officers to open negotiations, rather than simply demand money, which changed the culture of conversations around rent.

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The outcome

Since introducing the new policy, South Lanarkshire Council reduced evictions for arrears year on year. By 2020, it had improved on its figures from 2014/15, evicting just 20 households for this reason (from a stock of almost 25,000). This is the second lowest local authority arrears eviction rate in Scotland, behind the Shetland Islands.

There were concerns that, during the pandemic, the approach could lead to anunmanageable increase in arrears. But in fact the Council’s arrears rate by end March 2021 was nearly back at pre- pandemic levels (7.8%), and below Scottishaverage (8.7%). The Council is now completing research on abandonments, with a view to redesigning interventions to reduce these, and recently extended its tenancy sustainment fund approach to PRS tenants.

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Key insights

• incentivise tenants to talk to the Council: give staff tools to open negotiations, and avoid use of generic letters with a formal tone
• much as it does in other areas of housing and support, a psychologically informed approach on the frontline can pay dividends in relation to rent collection
• Senior Management buy-in is key when trying to shift both culture and process around major areas such as evictions

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Find out more…

Jacqueline Fernie, Homelessness & Housing Support Manager
jacqueline.fernie@southlanarkshire.gov.uk