COUNCILS are attempting to evict twice as many of their tenants as housing associations, according to an industry group, but some evictions are unavoidable.
The Glasgow and West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations (GWSF) hit back after a report by housing and homelessness charity Shelter Scotland criticised councils and social landlords of contributing to homelessness with a 24 per cent rise in evictions.
Responding to the report, GWSF said that whilst any eviction action is regrettable, the increase in evictions by housing associations has only been 5 per cent since 2013, despite challenging economic times.
The figures, show local authorities issuing eviction notices to eight per cent of tenants in 2015/6 with just 0.4 per cent resulting in an actual eviction, while housing associations apply to evict four per cent, with 0.3 per cent of tenants eventually being removed last year.
GWSF Director David Bookbinder said the Shelter research was welcome but flawed. "It will encourage landlords to consider their practices. Ideally further research would talk to social landlords about their experiences of managing arrears at a very difficult time," he said. "Such research might also cast light on the differences between council and housing association approaches to dealing with arrears."
Poverty was one factor but rarely the sole cause when people fell into arrears, he said. "In the most difficult cases a common factor is often a complete failure to engage with the landlord.
“With so many people forced to pay a high rent in the private rented sector, getting a social sector home is something to be prized, and taking up a tenancy involves responsibilities as well as rights.
“Eviction very much remains a last resort."
The law now requires landlords to demonstrate all other measures have been tried to help a tenant he said, before an eviction is attempted. "Our members don’t see recovery action as an alternative to debt advice, but rather as a potential consequence of repeatedly ignoring offers of support."
However it was unfair to those who do pay their rent to allow a tenant to run up arrears without limit, Mr Bookbinder said. "The report highlights the high long term cost of evictions, but there’s a limit to how much you can ask other tenants to shoulder the ongoing debts of their neighbours”.
Earlier this week Shelter Scotland said eviction was the wrong way to tackle arrears and said figures for evictions by social landlords were "extremely disappointing" and reversed a trend towards reducing evictions in the four previous years.
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