What is the Housing Revenue Account?

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At 31 March 2009, the council owned 5,293 dwellings available for council house tenants. The income and expenditure relating to our responsibilities as landlord has, by law, to be recorded separately in a Housing Revenue Account, which is summarised below.

Housing Revenue Account2008/2009

£'000
Rents and service charges(22,506)
Government grants(376)
Total Income(22,882)
Expenditure
Supervision and Management5,412
Repairs and maintenance3,321
Subsidy paid to government9,641
Write down of asset values34,659
Other423
Total Expenditure53,456
Net cost of Services per Statutory Accounts30,574
Net Interest Payable281
Adjustments for difference between accounting requirements and the legislation for charging to tenants
Assets charges (depreciation, impairments etc)(30,568)
Pension accounting entries195
Other(127)(30,500)
Decrease in the HRA Balance355
Surplus brought forward(1,639)
Surplus carried forward(1,284)

The adjustment of £30.5 million relates to differences in accounting treatment of certain items between that required by accounting practice and that required by law. This includes the treatment of depreciation (write down of assets) and the treatment of pension costs.  The adjustment ensures that depreciation, variations in property values and other accounting adjustments are not charged to Council Tenants. (The statement above has included some netting off of figures for simplification).