Council house rents to increase by 7.15 per cent

Council Leader, Councillor Colin Lambert, said the Council has "no option" but to introduce the fees

Rent charges on council homes are to increase by 7.15 per cent for 2011/12 and heating charges are to be increased by 11.94 per cent.

The decision to implement the increases was made at a Cabinet meeting held tonight (Monday 31 January 2011).

On passing the recommendations the Leader of Rochdale Council, Councillor Colin Lambert, said the Cabinet had “no option” but to implement the rises.

The report presented to the Cabinet, stated: “Historically rents in Rochdale have been the lowest in the North West. The 2011/12 formula rent for Rochdale is £64.64 per week; whereas the average actual rent will be £59.95 per week based on a 7.15% increase. The increase in individual rents is limited to RPI (4.6%) + 0.5% + £2.”

With regards to heating prices, the following explanation was given: “Individual heating charges are recommended to increase by an average of 11.9 per cent, resulting in an average charge of £8.53 per week. The proposed charges reflect current levels of consumption and changes in the daily charge. The level of the weekly charge is set in order to recover costs and the Council’s contract means that current prices are substantially less than those charged to domestic users and, because consumption is group metered, charges are not liable to VAT.”

The estimated management fee for Rochdale Boroughwide Housing to maintain the houses in 2011/12 is £30.624m, an increase of £0.762m on the original approved fee for 2010/11.

The Cabinet was advised that setting a rent increase lower than that calculated using the rent restructuring formula would reduce the resources available to the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and subsequently impact on the sustainability of the HRA under the reforms proposed by the Government.