Social housing borrowing could be lower in East Devon

EDDC may now need to borrow £8 million

East Devon District Council may have to borrow £1 million less than initially expected for social housing.

It’s still going to need a large sum. Overspending last year and dipping into reserves meant it thought it would have to borrow around £9.2 million to balance social housing finances this year.

But the council’s housing review board has been told that it should only need to borrow around £8 million for its capital programme – money spent on things such as repairs.

Its finances have been helped by more funding being received than expected, and higher interest income.

But it does also now need to spend more money than anticipated.

A £13.3 million budget has risen 15 per cent to £15.3 million.

Around £600,000 needs to be spent on repairs and ‘complaint works’ and £300,000 on social service adaptations, such as installing wet rooms and extensions.

But the council is currently earning more income from social housing than expected, partly because of high levels of rent collection and a fewer empty properties.

East Devon has 4,127 social properties, with 73 void empty at the end of September – equivalent to less than two per cent of its stock. This had dropped further to just 54 properties this month.