house
housing news for Winchester City Council tenants and leaseholders
Government rules force rent The Council has agreed an average rent increase of 1.09% from April 2010. The actual rent rise will vary according to the size of the property. Some rents may reduce by up to £1 a week while others may increase by up to £2 a week. Under Government guidance rents were initially reduced by 0.9% in line with inflation. But the Government has set “target rents” – bringing council and housing association rents to the same level within the next three years – so we had to introduce a 1.0% rise. We regret that this Government guidance means there is no new money to reduce the current maintenance backlog. Some parts of the repairs programme will continue to be suspended for at least another year. Councillors reluctantly agreed to continue with the reduced investment programme after hearing the Council was still required to give over £8 million to the Government
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in subsidy despite the £3 million shortfall in its own budget. Richard Botham, Head of Landlord Services, said: “We continue to be in an impossible position and the system is grossly unfair. “We don’t have enough money to spend on our own homes yet the Government still expects us to pay more than £8 million to subsidise council houses elsewhere in the country”. The City Council needs a minimum repairs budget of £10 million to maintain the current repairs programme, although Government allowances only give it £7 million each year. Whilst the Council complies with the Government’s Decent Homes Standard, over 30% of Council homes have a kitchen over 20 years old or a bathroom over 30 years old. 10% of homes have both old kitchens and bathrooms. Mr Botham added: “I apologise to our tenants who will not get a modern kitchen or bathroom.
Tenant News, produced by Tenants efor d iTenants t i o n 1can be found at the back of this edition
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Our apology Changes to Heating Systems Maintenance You said we did Could you be a Tenant Inspector? New Housing Surgeries Launched
“The Government has promised to address this under-funding and we are awaiting announcements which we hope will give us the money we need from April 2011.”
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16
March 2010