Council house rents rise by 3.5 per cent

Feb 21 2008

COUNCIL rents will rise by 3.5 per cent a year from April 1.

South Lanarkshire’s 25,890 tenants will have to fork out, on average, an extra £1.83 per week for their homes.

The increase pushes up the average weekly rent in South Lanarkshire from £52.24 to £54.07.

Tenants will receive written notification of the increase before the end of the month.

Money raised by the rent increase will help fund the council house improvement programme, known as HomeHappening.

The total capital investment in housing improvements in 2008-09 will be £38.04m.

Spending next financial year will be used to improve the homes of around 3500 tenants.

Council Leader Eddie McAvoy said the rents rise was below the annual rent-rise formula of inflation-plus-one per cent agreed with tenants before HomeHappening started.

That extra one per cent was to help fund HomeHappening.

Retail Price Inflation rose to 4.1 per cent in January, up from 4.0 per cent in December.