WREXHAM Council’s Executive Board has been challenged over £1.3m set aside to cover bad debts in social housing next year.
The executive approved a Housing Revenue Account budget that included a 2.7% rent increase next year and a £54m provision over five years to manage empty properties.
But it was the £1.3m set aside for bad and doubtful debts next year which raised questions, with some councillors believing savings could be made.
Labour group leader Cllr Dana Davies said: “On the provision for bad and doubtful debts we are carrying £1.3m. What are we doing to reduce that bad debt?
“That’s a massive amount. With regard to the budget that’s a hard amount to swallow.”

Deputy leader of the council and Lead Member for Housing and Climate Change David Bithell said that work to reduce bad debts was underway.
“This report has been through our accountants and we have increased our reserve for 2025/26 from £5m to £6m and officers are working on rent arrears.
“We are working to reduce our debt. It has increased slightly over the last year but that is predominantly due to the cost of living crisis. We are working to try to recover that debt in the next 12 months.”
The allocation of funding in the budget for bad debt provision is calculated using a national formula to ensure councils have enough set aside to cover the cost.
“Could we please see the actual data on bad debt from last year as it feels that could be an area we can look at to reduce expenditure.”
Her concerns over bad debt provision were supported by Cllr Graham Rogers.
“It is of concern to myself in relation to the debt that keeps on increasing on a yearly basis,” he said, “I understand staff are doing their damnedest to get the debt down but it is of concern.”
Head of Housing Tracy Hague said that bringing down rent arrears was a priority for the department.
“Estate teams have brought in a number of new initiatives to try to recover more of our rent owed,” she said.
“It’s really difficult with the crisis that is hitting our contract holders (tenants) at this moment in time. Very often it’s not because they don’t want to pay, it’s because they are struggling financially.

“One of the initiatives that’s proved quite useful is contacting our contract holders out of normal working hours. A small group of officers will get together and contact contract holders to try to find out why they are unable to pay their rent. They will then signpost them to our housing support officers and other agencies who can assist.
“We’re also looking at working more closely with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). As you know some of the migration over to Universal Credit has really hit our contract holders hard and they have to wait a while longer to get that first payment. Obviously that means we have to wait that little bit longer for our rent.
“We are monitoring those initiatives to see how successful they are with a view to rolling out visits out of hours, but we’ve only got so many staff and if they’re working later then they can’t be in early as well.”