Council rents to rise by over 6% as Oxford tenants overpay by £16 million
Along with a council tax increase of over 4%, council tenants in Oxford will have to contend with an inflation busting average rent increase of 6.25%.
But this increase hasn’t been introduced to cover increased housing costs, to raise money to upgrade council stock or even to build much-needed new council homes.
The 6.25% rise has been set in accordance with guidelines issued by the New Labour government in order to bring council rents into line with housing association and private rents.
In fact income from council housing in Oxford, including rents and work done by Oxford City Homes for outside bodies, will generate almost £16 million more next year than it costs to run, repair and maintain the council’s housing stock.
So where will this £16 million profit go? To the New Labour government of course, to spend as it wishes.
Every year the city council provides a similar amount—around 40% of its total housing costs—to the government from its housing account, in what is misleadingly known as the housing ‘subsidy’.
Council housing is actually subsidising the government rather than the other way round. This year council properties in the UK generated a total of £1.7 billion extra for the government.
But with massive waiting lists across the country, New Labour still refuses to consider building more council housing.
The Smiths: no wonder they’re smiling!
While their own party has sold off council housing and fleeced tenants over the last ten years, New Labour county councillor Val Smith and her husband, the MP and former cabinet minister Andrew Smith, don’t have to worry about housing. Thanks to help from the taxpayer to the tune of over £20,000 a year for accommodation in London (as part of Andrew Smith’s £4,000/wk salary and expenses package) the Smiths own a smart townhouse in Central in addition to their spacious house on Blackbird Leys.
Leys Independent, issue 38, February 2008
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