This section covers housing options, access to social housing, tenancy sustainment and homeless people.
Local authority landlords have the authority to issue a section 5 referral to a Registered Social Landlord, under Section 5 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, once the Section 5 is issued the RSL have up to six weeks to provide housing to applicants assessed as statutorily homeless.
The number and percentage of homeless households referred to RSLs under section 5 and other referral routes
| 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | Scottish LA Average | |
| Number referred to RSLs under section 5 | 52 | 36 | 35 | |
| Number referred through other routes | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total number of homeless households that we had a statutory duty to secure permanent accommodation | 374 | 422 | 438 | |
| Percentage of homeless households referred to RSLs under Section 5 and other referral routes | 13.90% | 8.53% | 7.99% | 26.3% |
In 2022/23, we continued to work with our colleagues in Registered Social Landlords to meet the needs of homeless applicants in Clackmannanshire, however, the number of referrals reduced as RSLs also allocated to applicants from their own waiting lists.
Over the last year we let a total of 351 properties, 70 of these went to applicants from our housing waiting list, 219 to homeless applicants, 61 to existing tenants and 1 from other sources. A total of 45 tenants swapped homes using the mutual exchange scheme.
In 2022/23, the number of applicants presenting as homeless continued to be high, we let a greater number of voids to this group to allow temporary accommodation to be freed up for new homeless presentations.
Number and percentage of Lettable Houses that became vacant during the year
| Year | Number | Percentage |
| 2020/21 | 321 | 6.65% |
| 2021/22 | 354 | 7.35% |
| 2022/23 | 389 | 8.02% |
| Scottish LA Average | 7.4% |
There has been an increase in the number of properties becoming void throughout the year. Although COVID-19 restrictions were lifted and evictions and repossessions recommenced last reporting year, we are still seeing an increase of evictions this year. We have also seen a rise of tenants being rehomed by local housing associations and tenants having to give up their tenancies due to financial hardship.
| % of new tenancies sustained for more than a year |
2020/21 |
2021/22 | 2022/23 | Scottish LA Average |
| Existing tenants | 96.61% | 98.15% | 97.62% | 94.4% |
| Homeless applicants | 89.00% | 85.05% | 87.50% | 90.1% |
| Housing list applicants | 94.19% | 93.94% | 91.49% | 91.2% |
| Others | 100% | 0% | 100% | 89.0% |
| All | 92.09% | 88.66% | 89.80% | 91.4% |
Our overall sustainment figure has improved from last year but still sits below the Scottish LA average. Housing Officers continue to focus on carrying out Settling In and Tenancy Sustainment visits to make sure tenants, who require additional support, are offered suitable support to help them sustain their tenancies.
| Home Adaptations | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 |
Scottish LA Average |
| Number of households currently waiting for adaptations to their home | 103 | 131 | 96 | 3,042 |
| Total cost of adaptations completed in the year | £149,812 | £148,397 | £256,189 | £19.1m |
| Total number of adaptations completed during the reporting year. | 166 | 160 | 245 | |
| The average working days to complete adaptations | 59.74 | 88.92 | 74.11 | 46.9 |
The average working days taken to complete adaptations have reduced this reporting year compared to last but are still higher than the Scottish LA average. During the year, we reviewed our approach to carrying out adaptations and allocated additional resources to address the increasing waiting list. We are making good progress reducing the number of people waiting for adaptations by carrying out more adaptations in the year. We have a number of suggested improvement actions that are being considered and we hope to see further improvement in this area.
We received 593 homeless applications during the 2022/23 reporting year. This has increased and is now at the highest level since 2011/12. This represents an 8% increase on the previous year which is in line with national statistics as overall there was a 9% increase in application across Scotland.
Housing
Kilncraigs, Greenside Street, Alloa, FK10 1EB
Tel: 01259 450000
Email: housing@clacks.gov.uk