CAN I respond to Terry Smith and assure him that neither officers nor I will "run for cover when the going gets tough."
The collection of rent is fundamental to providing the service that our tenants deserve and we can stand justifiably proud of our efforts to reduce current and former tenant arrears through a combination of debt counselling, benefits advice and enforcement action.
Recent figures released show our current level of arrears are at 5.2 per cent, which is well below the average for London of 8.2 per cent.
In 1994 we inherited rent arrears of nearly £4 million and through determination this figure has been reduced to £2.2 million.
This figure is still too high, but over a four-year period, across London only Newham has reduced its arrears by a greater amount.
CLLR Neil Aves,
Hamilton Crescent, Palmers Green.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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