Darling freezes local authority rent rise
The size of council housing rent increases will be frozen next year, the government has announced.
Chancellor Alistair Darling said guideline local authority rents would remain at 3.1 per cent for 2010/11 in the pre-Budget report – instead of a planned 6.1 per cent increase.
A Whitehall source told Inside Housing that there had been ‘argy-bargy’ between the Treasury and the Communities and Local Government department over who would pay for the rent level cut.
‘The CLG has apparently made a sizeable contribution to the Treasury to allow this cut to 3.1 per cent to happen,’ he said.
Steve Partridge, director of financial policy at the Chartered Institute of Housing, said it would be difficult to judge the impact of the freeze on council finances until the government publishes the amount councils will get for major repairs and management and maintenance allowances.
The pre-Budget report also said the government would consider enabling councils to borrow money against rent from homes they had built. The government first mooted the idea in a consultation published in January.
The chancellor announced plans to improve council land supplies, train local authorities to drive harder bargains in section 106 land deals, and beef up local authorities’ planning role.
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Readers' comments (4)
Jim Paton | 10/12/2009 1:16 pm
3.1% is still well above inflation and will hard for many people to meet.
How many people (i.e. council tenants not bankers or QUANGO bosses) are getting a 3.1% pay rise this year or next year?
Are we supposed to be grateful for just getting punched and not kicked as well?
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tom | 10/12/2009 4:05 pm
Where I live last years increase still stands at around 6%, it never came down half that ,as was had supposed to be agreed.
Now they plan a further, above inflation rent hike?,on top of all the other double inflation rent rises of recent years.
Why work? why indeed
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DavidJ | 10/12/2009 10:13 pm
Well our organisation is giving a 1% increase to staff, with rents dropping 0.9%. One rule for one......
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Steve White | 15/12/2009 11:59 am
Where did the 6.1% and 3.1% increases originate? I work for an RSL and using the Government formula for target rents, incorporating the September RPI, we are having to reduce rents next year. Is it one rule for councils and another for RSL's?
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