SCOTLAND’S Sheriff Officers have been accused of “making up for lost time” after councils tried to evict 366 households in the first four months of the year, up from just 17 over the same period last year.

The 2,052 per cent spike in court proceedings initiated by local authorities comes after the end of a temporary ban on evictions during pandemic.

However, it also came as homelessness applications jumped by 16.5 per cent on the previous quarter.

One charity boss warned that the country was at risk of jettisoning the “huge progress” made during the lockdown on ending homelessness and rough sleeping.

The statistics released by the Scottish Housing Regulator revealed that the total number of court actions initiated by local authorities was 17 in the first four months of 2021, before rising to 74 in the following quarter, and then 182 before falling to 148 in the final quarter of the year.

Between January and April this year the number spiked to 366, a jump of 147% on the last quarter.

Meanwhile, registered social landlords (RSLs) initiated 263 court actions in the same period, up from 261 in the previous quarters, and up from 179 over the same time period in 2021.

The regulator also revealed that the number of homelessness applications to local authorities jumped from 7,969 in the last quarter of 2021 to 9,281 in the first quarter of this year.

Meanwhile, on March 31, 2022, 13,375 households remained in temporary accommodation; up 2% from the end of December 2021.

Matt Downie, chief executive of Crisis, said: “It is incredibly worrying to see the number of homelessness applications begin to creep back up to pre-pandemic levels. 

“The last couple of years saw Scotland make huge progress in its journey towards ending homelessness and rough sleeping, and it is vital that momentum is not lost.

“Yet with the cost of living spiralling and welfare support too low to cover many people’s housing costs, we face the very real prospect of a spike in homelessness in the post-pandemic period if action is not taken now.

“With families struggling to get by, the UK Government must urgently invest in housing benefit to stop people losing their homes. It is also critical that the Scottish Government pushes on with plans to strengthen homelessness prevention measures so people can get help earlier, before they reach crisis point.”

In Holyrood on Wednesday, Labour MSP  Foysol Choudhury said the parliament’s Social Justice and Social Security Committee had “heard evidence that sheriff officers are making up for lost time since the pandemic.”

That was denied by Minister for Tenants’ Rights Patrick Harvie. He said the Labour MSP was “overstating the case”. 

“The level of social rented sector evictions remains low compared with pre-pandemic levels,” he added.

Sean Clerkin, campaign coordinator with the Scottish Tenants Organisation, said there was a “homelessness emergency in Scotland”.  He said local authorities needed “much more funding”.

He said: "We need to freeze rents at this year's level and stop all evictions in Scotland keeping families in their homes instead of them being evicted which is highly damaging to families with children, especially during this cost of living crisis.

"We need the Scottish Government to step forward and give much more funding to help local authorities to build a minimum of 12,000 socially rented homes in Scotland and to fund a freeze in rents and stop homelessness from happening."

A Scottish Government spokesperson said:“We know many people are struggling financially and we are working urgently to support them, with almost £770 million per year invested in cost of living support.

"We have increased eight Scottish benefits by 6%, closer to the rate of inflation, and introduced a range of family benefits not available elsewhere in the UK. We have also committed up to £86 million for discretionary housing payments in 2022-23, including up to £10 million to mitigate the UK Government’s benefit cap as far as we are able within devolved powers.

“We took wide-ranging action during the pandemic to help ensure people could stay safe in their homes, including placing a requirement on private landlords to work with their tenants to manage rent arrears, and giving tribunals discretion over evictions.

"Evictions are still below pre-pandemic levels and we are now seeking to make both these measures permanent through our Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill.

“The best way to end homelessness is to prevent it, and we have recently consulted on plans for the introduction of new homelessness prevention duties on local authorities and public bodies. We intend to include these in our forthcoming Housing Bill.”