Council eviction policy 'immoral'!

Tap Water

A change in Council policy will give Rochdale Boroughwide Housing the right to evict council tenants if they fail to pay their water bills.

The decision, which was made by the council cabinet at a meeting last night (Monday 15 September), means water charges will be collected as part of the tenants' rent, rather than being paid direct by the tenants to United Utilities.

Members of the media and the public were excluded from the meeting while the cabinet heard a private report which reviewed the water charge collection by Rochdale Boroughwide Housing.

The report stated: "By implying that we will not seek possession [of a property] in cases where arrears can be clearly identified to be water charges, the council will be sending out a message to a growing number of people that it is ok not to pay water charges as the council will never implement the final sanction of seeking possession."

The Rochdale Labour party has condemned the policy as 'immoral'. Group leader Councillor Colin Lambert said: "We all agree that everyone must pay their bills but it is not the business of Rochdale Council to put families on the street for non payment of a third party debt. This policy change means that if you are a tenant in an RBH property and for whatever reason you fail to pay your water charge you will be treated differently to every other householder in the UK.”

The Labour MP for Heywood and Middleton, Jim Dobbin said: “I cannot believe that at a time of major credit problems and fuel debt that this council is proposing to evict families for a utility company debt. Where will it all end?

“Will the council now use council tax payers’ money to buy electricity and gas debts from companies and threaten eviction for non payment? It is an abuse of power to use public money to pay the individual bills of tenants so that private company shareholders can put the profit in their back pockets.”

In response Councillor Doreen Brophy-Lee, Cabinet Member for Housing, said: “Evictions are always an absolute last resort. We provide extensive support for people who get into difficulties, including debt advisors and funding to support genuine hardship cases, doing all we can to avoid an eviction. Over 99% of our tenants pay their rent, including water charges on time. This decision is to address the issue of people who won’t pay, not those who can’t pay. Last year less than 1% of tenants were evicted due to financial arrears.”

Rochdale’s Labour Parliamentary Candidate, Simon Danczuk, said there was a cruel irony to be observed in that councillors voted at the same cabinet meeting to increase funding for a local homeless hostel. He said: “Having passed a resolution that will make more people homeless, the Lib Dems then give a homeless hostel more money to make space for them.”