Finance Indicators: Local Authority Finance - Housing Benefits (FIN_07_60)

Summary

The Housing Benefits indicator describes various types of spending for housing benefits (rent allowances, rebates, etc.) that Local Authorities make annually since 2004.

Technical description

The Housing Benefits indicator was compiled from annual revenue outturn estimates of Local Authority (LA) revenue expenditure and financing. The indicator includes several types of mandatory payments from inside or outside the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), mainly: a) “Housing benefits: rent allowances”, b) “Housing benefits: non-HRA rent rebates” and c) “Housing benefits: rent rebates to HRA tenants”. It also includes two other types of payments, namely d) “Housing benefits: subsidy limitation transfers from HRA”, and e) “Contribution to the HRA regarding items shared by the whole community”. Note that before 2009, housing benefit data include entries regarding transitional funds, namely “Housing benefits: transfers to/from HRA under transitional measures”, albeit values are commonly zero or very close to zero, and thus have been excluded from the dataset. Values are expressed in thousands (£) and presented on the basis of financial years, i.e. from April 1^st to March 31^st. Values regard Lower and Upper Tier LA geography. Individual payment types are expressed as the total amount as well as per capita, for direct comparisons. However, annual figures were not adjusted for inflation.