REDDITCH Borough council have announced they are increasing council house rent by seven per cent.
At a full council meeting on Monday, councillors voted to increase the rent to the top end of Government recommendations claiming the money raised would be spent on sorting out the mould problems and outstanding repairs.
Coun Joe Baker, Labour Group leader said: “The Labour group requested a deferral on the increase until February 27th so that a full costed report be given, so we could analyse where the money was going to be spent.
“It is public knowledge that the conservative have a poor record of handling the councils purse by the two section 24 notices they have caused this council to receive.
“Over the last 6 month we have been overwhelmed by the constant reports and complaints by residents regarding the repairs, mould and general state of our housing stock.
“So why are the Tories charging more for less?, Surely the tenant’s deserve good quality housing at an affordable cost especially with the cost of living crisis.
“All the Labour group want is to ensure that our residents and tenants live in good quality housing which they can afford to rent and money raised in any increase is fair and used in the appropriate way this is our alternative which unfortunately got voted down on Monday night.”
Leader of the council, Coun Matt Dormer said: ““Even at 7 per cent this year’s rent increase is below inflation, which is a problem that we’ve had to manage in the budget as we have seen far higher than average inflation in housing and construction materials.
“Any additional income that may be raised would be fed into specific initiatives to improve the quality of our social housing, including works around damp and mould which has recently been in the national news.
“Investments in capital refurbishments of properties are also a major part of the council’s plans.
Redditch Borough Council’s portfolio holder for housing Coun Craig Warhurst, said:“Ultimately however, the rent is where the money for social housing comes from, to pay for the mortgages from building the homes in the first place, for repairs and maintenance, management of safety and compliance, and so on.
“We’ve managed to balance Redditch’s social housing budget to do that this year but even a 7 per cent rent increase isn’t really enough when faced with such inflation.”
