RENTS to live in Worcestershire's council houses should rise by no more than £2 per week after inflation this year, the Government has said.

Ministers are attempting to protect tenants against huge hikes in rent after giving local authorities extra cash to spend on their housing stock.

Social landlords, such as housing associations, are also being urged to limit their rent rises to a maximum of £2 in real terms.

And some tenants could have their rents frozen or cut, as the Government attempts to bring higher housing association rents into line with council rents.

Tony McNulty, the new Housing Minister, said rents - even including service charges - should rise by no more than £2 plus half a per cent above inflation.

He stressed councils retained some discretion over charges, but said the Government was determined that rents should be "both fair and affordable".

"The proposals strongly discourage councils from applying service charges to essential fabric costs like communal lifts," Mr McNulty said.

The Government first announced last year that it planned to protect tenants against big rent rises - and press for higher rents to be frozen or reduced.

Ministers suggested that a fair weekly rent for somebody living in a four-bedroom home in 2002/03 would be £100.

And they pledged that council rents would, on average, rise at only half the rate of the increases over the last 10 years.

The Government wants to stop some housing association tenants having to pay substantially more than people living in the remaining council-owned homes.

It said councils could afford the limited rent rises because they had received an extra £93m to spend on housing management and maintenance this year.

But some local authorities were in a race against time to change computer systems in time to implement changes in subsidy rules.

Grahame Lucas, Worcester City Council's head of finance, said the council was complying with the Government's rent guidelines.

"Rent rises will be governed by these guidelines over the next 10 years," he said.

He also said any housing stock transfer would have no effect on rent increases.

"Any housing association that takes over management of the council's housing would also have to keep to these same rules," he said.