I WAS delighted to read in the Advertiser/Messenger the comment from the deputy leader of my own council, Terri Matthews, explaining that funding to pay for benefits on the newly announced service charges for sheltered dwellings will be met by central government rather than local tenants.

This is a departure from the existing arrangement whereby council house tenants who can afford their rents, actually pay to subsidise the rents of those who cannot afford them.

The latest audited accounts for the housing revenue account (which is ring-fenced and cannot be cross-subsidised by council tax payers) shows the magnitude of the rent rebate burden on our tenants.

Income from rent of dwellings amounts to just over £6.7m and from this figure more than £3m per annum is paid out in the form of rent rebates to the less well-off.

A further £400,000 is also taken from tenants to fund a so-called 'negative subsidy' which the Government insists shall be paid into the general fund.

All told, nearly 53 per cent of the total rental income received from tenants is paid out again without directly benefitting them.

This seems particularly harsh on the elderly and vulnerable members of our society.

Stephen Peters,

South Wythall Ward.