Improved rent payments in Rochdale

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing logo

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), which manages the Council’s 14,000 homes across the borough, has announced improved rent collection figures for the year ending April 2010.

Figures show that the housing organisation collected just over 98% of all rent due from council tenants, which is a record achievement. At the same time, it managed to further reduce the amount of legal action necessary to recover debt. The number of cases which went to court was reduced by a third, leading to only 82 evictions during the year.

Andrew Toft, Operations Director, said: “We are delighted with the results, as time spent pursuing debts can be costly and takes us away from our core aim which is delivering a wide range of high quality services to our tenants. I would like to pay tribute to our housing officers who deal with rent arrears cases and thank the vast majority of our customers who do pay promptly.

“An additional factor this year, I feel, has been the early intervention work and support offered by our in house Money Matters team. The team offers a wide range of practical help including advice and support to those with financial problems, to help curb any issues before they spiral out of control.”

Any RBH tenants who are struggling to pay their rent are advised to get in touch with their Housing Officer as soon as the problem arises, to discuss their situation, receive advice and to agree a payment plan.