Rent rise to hit social housing tenants

Social housing tenants in Rochdale have been hit by a 5.5% rent hike — for having the wrong type of landlord.

Householders will pay an average of £4 per week more because they live in housing association properties, compared with thousands of council tenants across the borough whose rise will be under £2 a week.

The sharp discrepancy follows the Government’s decision to cap council rent increases, but not those of the growing majority of tenants of other social landlords.

To add insult to injury, those in housing association homes already pay significantly higher rents than their counterparts in traditional council homes — an average of £69.95 last year, compared with £61.63.

Housing Minister Margaret Beckett was accused of a cynical attempt to grab headlines when she pledged £175m to help tenants through challenging economic times.

The announcement, made in March, failed to mention that housing association tenants would be excluded from the help on offer.

Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrat housing spokeswoman who uncovered the figures, said: “There is no reason why housing association tenants are able to afford this rise any more than council tenants.”

But the department for communities and local government insisted it was the responsibility of each housing association to set affordable and fair rents.

A spokesman added: “Registered social landlords are independent and have a different business model to councils that enables them to raise finance in a different way.”

A 5.5% increase on £69.95 is £3.80, but that average housing association rent figure is for March 2008, which means there has already been an increase since then.

Therefore, this year’s weekly rise is likely to be at least £4, while the increase for council tenants was capped at 3.1%.