I attended a members briefing on the Housing Revenue Account Reform and affordable housing today. Although many of the reforms will enable the council manage its housing stock a lot better than it is currently there was one aspect of this plan that I dont agree with.
Within the plan there sits a paragraph that attempts to explain the need for a convergence of rented accomodation (housing associations, private rented and council housing) rents over the whole of North Staffordshire, basically they want the council properties of Stoke to have the same rent as Stafford or Newcastle-under-Lyme! I questioned this convergence plan and it was admitted that actually it would be more like a relentless rise in Stoke rents and that by the year 2016 the rents would all be the same!
Anyone who lives in North Staffordshire will be aware that we have massivly differing economies across our area, Stafford for example is relatively a wealthy economy, Stoke on the other hand is one of the poorest cities in Britain, 147th out of 153 authorities.
The average rent in Stoke this year is £60.17, by the year 2016 it will be around £90!
This massive rent rise raises several taboo issues such as real affordability, unemployment, working poor, failed economy, wage levels. As anyone who lives in the real world will know the private rented and housing association rents will always position themselves as being 30% more expensive that council housing, thus the attempt to achieve parity on these rents will only result in a spiralling increase in rents across the board (that will make the private landlords even richer)!
Another point that I would like to make is that the standard of repair and maintenance on the city's housing stock is abysmal, all I see when I drive through the large council housing estates of Stoke are a lot of shabby, unkempt houses. I consider it grossly unfair to expect folks working on low wages to pay £90 (2016 prices) per week to live in these horrible houses.
Finally, I am pretty sure most folks living in council houses are not aware of this coming rent revolution, please forward this information to them.
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