Council to reduce housing rent increase
Press Release
28th April 2009
At its meeting of 22nd
April 2009, members of the Policy, Finance & Administration
Committee gave approval to reduce the rent increase for council
housing tenants.
In January the Council agreed to
increase the rent levels by 6.12%; this was based on the national
average guideline rent increase for 2009/10 provided by the
Government. However, in March 2009, the Minister for Housing
announced a change to the guideline rent increase due to a
re-calculation of the inflation figure used. This has suggested a
proposed new average guideline rent increase for 2009/10 of
3.1%.
Members last night approved this
option and the rent increase for Melton Borough Council tenants
will be 3.07% for 2009/10.
Malise Graham, Chair of the Policy,
Finance & Administration Committee and Leader of the Council
said "I am pleased that we are able to reduce the rent increase, I
think it's very important that we do all that we can to help our
residents at this time. This reduction in the rent increase will
help some of the most vulnerable people we have in the Borough"
Harrinder Rai, the Council's Head
of Social & Economic Development said "This reduction is
welcomed and will help many of our tenants. Due to the amount
of work needed to amend the rent accounts and logistically manage
the reduction, the new rent increases will formally take affect
from 1st September 2009 [backdated to April]. We
have put into place all the steps we need to take for this to
happen and we will be writing to all our tenants with a formal
notification"
~Ends~
For more information please contact:
Head of Social & Economic Development
Melton Borough Council
Email: hrai@melton.gov.uk
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