North Lanarkshire Council tenants face rent increase

Feb 11 2010 by John Rowbotham, Hamilton Advertiser

NORTH Lanarkshire’s 37,000 council tenants were this week facing above-inflation rent increases.

Average rents are set to rise by 3½ per cent for the fifth consecutive year.

And tenants who move in to the 500 new homes to be built by the council over the next five years are set to pay a whopping 20 per cent rents premium, equivalent to about £10.40 per week.

The local authority’s housing chiefs said housing stock had fallen by 154 properties this financial year, cutting rental income by more than £400,000.

The 3½ per cent rents rise, combined with savings of over £500,000, would pay for a further £1m improvements in housing.

However, the Consumer Price Index (rate of inflation) for the 12 months to December was 2.9 per cent and in November was only 1.9 per cent.

Housing and social work committee chairman Barry McCulloch said they intended to use extra cash from the rents rise to double the number of new-build properties originally planned.

A combination of lower interest rates and costs and longer payment terms had made this possible.

He added that this year £58m would be invested in housing improvements including:

£1.3 million on regeneration projects such as back court upgrades and demolition of Glencairn Tower, Motherwell.

£18.8m on energy efficiency projects such as replacement heating programmes, overcladding Brandon Court, and windows and door replacements.

£12.5m on major repairs among them lift replacements, floor coverings to common areas and chute replacements.

£6.5m on home safety and security such as lead pipe replacements, door entry upgrades, rewiring, high rise security, CCTV replacement, etc.

£13m on kitchen and bathroom replacements.

£1.1m on decoration allowances/home loans.

The council hope to complete the construction of 125 houses by 2012 and a further 250 by 2015. Because of funding uncertainty, no timescale has been set for the remaining 125 homes the council expect to build.

Twenty of the houses, under construction in Holytown, are almost completed and other sites chosen for new homes include the former Ravenscraig Steelworks site.

Housing director Mary Castles said: “These investments have been prioritised in line with the improvements our tenants have told us they would like to see.

“We are committed to maximum rent increases of 3.5 per cent per year.

“Our rent levels are currently 13th lowest in Scotland and approximately four per cent below the Scottish average.

“Rents charged by local housing associations are on average 19 per cent higher than ours.”

SNP Group Leader Dick Lyle said : “We appreciate that the average rise is above inflation but the depletion of the housing stock left the council with little room for manoeuvre.

“We are, however, opposed to the imposition of a surcharge on the tenants of new properties being built by the council.

“The council seem to be saying that because people are getting a tip-top house, they should pay extra.

“However, we feel the council are introducing a two-tier system on rent payers.”

He added: “It seems ridiculous that a Socialist council like North Lanarkshire should be introducing Tory policies.”

A council spokesman said: “The specification of the new houses will be significantly better than the stock we have at the moment.

“It is, therefore, considered not unreasonable to levy a higher rent on the new houses.”

He added: “We don’t think we will have much bother filling the houses.”

North Lanarkshire’s full council have yet to rubber-stamp the proposals.