New Rules For Council Tenants

Received a letter stating that those earning 40k or more will be subject to extra rent charges from next year, everyone whether earning it or not will have to produce proof of wage slips to the councils otherwise if not be over charged anyway. But this extra money is not going to the council to help build new homes but to the government instead. Plus on the other side of the letter stating that new or transferable tenants will now only have a lease for 2.5 years and 10 if lucky and there will be no more life time term tenancies for council properties for tenants. Also stated in letter any empty council properties are to be sold off now.

Have you received this letter yet?
What are your thoughts of this?

I also received that letter.

This is what one gets when the country voted in the Tories.

Also in the letter, is says that 'high value' council properties will have to be sold off in order to subsidize the right to buy that has been imposed on housing associations.

SE1 residents did not, but many other misguided people in other parts of the country did...

The selling off bit starts April next year. The bit about 3£ for every thousand pre-tax profit puzzled me, why not after tax? Why are the Government doing this and what will they do with the money. If people who receive housing benefit and are of working age will not make a great effort to seek work. Reading that back it implies that people on benefits don't want to work, I don't mean that at all , many people want to work. But some are happy sitting at home all day.

So if you dig your heels in and refuse to reveal your pay details the. Goverment has said you Maybe asked to pay the market rent , their on a winner considering private rents are sky high in inner London .

The lifetime tenancy bit s laughable, so current tenancies won't be affected if you stay where you are..humm so they'll turn a blind eye I bet if you downsize!

Can't believe it. Let's start a petition, demand the income and expenditure of the Goverment officials who dreamt this up every year, put an end to politicians second homes farce. If they live outside of London put them up in Travelodges instead of luxury homes in London .

There will not be many genuine tenants able to afford right to buy. In Southwark despite the 103 thousand discount, unless they cram their two bedroom property with unauthorised occupants and charge rents.
The whole thing stinks and must be stopped.



What pressure on people every 2 or 5 years to think will you be allowed to stay In your home or not?

Never knew right to buy was for housing association tenants also Jules...

Jan the old one wrote:

Never knew right to buy was for housing association tenants also Jules...

It's up to the housing association if they want to offer it. Guinness Trust don't, I enquired early this year.

I've spent months complaining about various issues on my estate, been flooded 4 times this year, they are not interested. If i stopped paying my rent I wonder if they would listen. I very much doubt it! Will be interesting to see it GT follow this new rule next year.

Jan the old one wrote:

Never knew right to buy was for housing association tenants also Jules...

Unfortunately it is, thanks to the new law...

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37318961][/url]

This really is a terrible and nasty piece of legislation. Two people on the London living wage will go over the £40K threshold and have to pay more rent. What nonsense and what a disincentive to work.

Apart from taking away council housing, it also means that someone will be paying more rent but get the same service, as the money doesn't go to the council. That money could be used to invest in improving properties but will be used for quantative easing or tax breaks for Starbucks .

The legislation means every council tenant will have to submit their income to Tooley Street.

I fear this legislation may cause people to not declare who lives at the property on the electoral register and if the 10 year census is not completed correctly, this in turn will create a false accuracy in the national demographics etc. I believe this happened when the Poll Tax was introduced. A couple earning 40k before tax is not a great amount. I agree in principle with the new rules but the threshold should be more than 40K and the extra money should go to the local council to build more social housing not the Tory government! Local councils are losing £millions every year from central government in cutbacks and by selling off council properties in prime locations to recoup the losses and shipping the tenants out of the area, is changing the social character of the neighbourhood. Gentrification or social cleansing call it what you want but it is not the way to go.

I wonder if Tooley Street council will cover SE16 residents as well, like us, as thats nearer to us then the next one which I believe is in Peckham somewhere. One stop shops was originally at Spa Rd then closed moved to Southwark Park Rd and now that one has closed to. Also remember people will have to take time off work to go to the councils to produce their wage slips and can imagine huge queues as the councils will be overloaded with this new work as well. Unless they can all be emailed over instead, or the council will have to very quickly develop a new website where people can send them over as on their current site you cant do anything like that. Even if people dont bother they will be penalised anyway at a higher rate so yet again the government have gotten exactly what they wanted. Us under their thumb as usual. And all this council regeneration projects, so will they now just be squashed and forgotten about then, this was supposed to go on for ten years. So some of those places in need of regeneration now wont get anything. Cant see government giving anything they only know how to take...cutting down tenancy is bad it leave people with so little choices now. I can see there being more homelessness with this. And while the big fat government sit on their arses with their huges houses and tax cuts for themselves not giving a ??????...