West Lothian Council house rent arrears top £5m with hardest hit areas named - Daily Record

Among the hardest wards include Whitburn and Blackburn, where arrears debt is over £1m, but this is down on the same position in January last year.

Rent arrears topped £5m in West Lothian last year as households continue to battle the squeeze.

But while the overall picture remains grim there are signs of stability for housing officers as collection rates remain high.

Among the hardest wards include Whitburn and Blackburn, where arrears debt is over £1m, but this is down on the same position in January last year.

Phyllis McFadden, a housing manager told councillors in the ward’s local area committee: “For the Whitburn ward the collection rate for the year to date in Quarter 2 [July to September] remains excellent at 92.1%. Whitburn has collected £6,503,876 in income against a charge of £7,061,194.”

She added: “West Lothian overall arrears position is currently £5,049,822. Of this, the arrears for Whitburn in Quarter 2 is £1,023,255. This is a decrease of £8,882 on last year.”

The collection rate across all nine wards, stretching from Broxburn in the east to Blackridge in the west, is well over 90% each quarter.

Housing officers stay in close contact with tenants offering advice and signposting them to services such as the Advice Shop which can help with household budgets.

Low debt cases, which are managed through early intervention by Housing Officers, have increased by 22 since last year.

These cases amounting to debts of £500 or less, account for 61% of households and 17% of the debt.

The number of high debt cases, which are managed through early intervention by Housing Officers, have increased by eight since last year.

These cases, with debts of £2,250 or more, account for 7% of households and 37% of the debt.

Of the households in arrears 58% are not in receipt of Universal Credit and 41% do. The number of households in arrears who do not receive UC has dropped by 41. The number who do dropped 26.

Mrs McFadden said the numbers being forced into debt by Universal Credit had slowed as the new benefits system became more familiar and manageable to tenants. Tenants can also elect to have rent deducted by the council.

Councillors heard that there were two evictions during the second quarter with a total value of £10,043,making the average eviction value £5,022.

Sequestration or bankruptcy, is also an option. There were five sequestrations in Whitburn in the second quarter of 2025/26 with a total value of £10,571. Making the average sequestration value £2,114 .

Mrs McFadden told councillors: “Evictions and Sequestrations remain the options of last resort. Housing Operations has a commitment to ensuring that customers can have long lasting and secure tenancies through early intervention and support.

“Outside of any eviction freezes, in normal arrears recovery years we sustain at least 99% of our tenancies, evicting less than 0.25% of our tenants.”

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