£1,000 rent rise

Submitted by Matthew on 31 August, 2016 - 10:42

70,000 households will face a rent rise of over £1,000 a year from next April, imposed by the government. The Housing Act, passed into law last year, forces councils to levy 15p extra rent for every £1 a household’s income is above £31,000, or £40,000 in London. It defines every household with two earners on £15,500, or £20,000 in London, as “high income”. That affects 9.3% of all council households in the south-east.

According to research commissioned by the local authorities’ umbrella group, the LGA, average monthly rent rises will be £72 outside London and £132 inside. Councils are already banned from subsidising council housing, and, though the increased rents will hit many households hard, councils expect only slight extra income on top of the extra admin costs of the new system. In some areas, the admin costs will exceed the extra rent collected.

This Act is another step in the efforts of successive governments since Thatcher to reduce council housing to a marginal pauper tenure, and then abolish it, leaving the housing market as a free-fire zone for profiteering landlords and property developers

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