18 March 2009

Guildford Borough Council has welcomed the chance to reduce rent increases for its housing tenants following a recent Government announcement.

Lead Councillor for Housing, Cllr Andrew French, has said that the Council hopes that the government decision means rent increases need not be as high as planned and comments: "The Council was extremely disappointed by the Government's proposed average increase of 6.2%, required by the Government's strategy for restructuring social housing rents, but it has now concluded belatedly that the increase can be reduced to just 3.1% on average. However, the Government hasn't yet explained how the changes will work and councils may have to bid for approval. Although we welcome the last-minute decision to reduce the rent increase, there will be additional costs to the Council to re-bill our 5,500 tenants.

"We're keen to keep rent increases as low as possible for our tenants and welcome any chance to help during the current economic climate.  We are waiting for further details from the Government on how this will be put into practice but once we have this information we will work to implement the change as quickly as we can, and we will keep tenants informed of progress," adds Cllr French.

The 2009/10 rent increase for Guildford Borough tenants was calculated in line with Government guidelines last December. This latest announcement means that the average rent increase for 2009/10 could reduce from 6.2% to 3.1%.

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