LET us explore the antics of Bromsgrove District Council to discover what exactly it is trying to do.
It proposes to bring in a rent increase of ten per cent in 2002 and a further increase in 2003, this could make it 42 per cent over four years. Is this a sick joke?
This is a threefold attack on your pocket.
In the first instance it is preparing all council housing for a take over by housing associations, and it insists on rent and service charges being separate from each other.
Secondly, if the tenants vote this out and decide to stay with the council, the pot of money the Government intends to make available in 2003 will be drawn on pro rata by all councils to cover their service charges. This cannot be a bad idea, so now we are getting the picture, guess who makes up the shortfall?
The third thing, however, is even worse because by 2003 the rents will have increased to the point where they are a prime target for a housing association, and now the council will tell you that if a housing association takes over your property it will hold the rent at its present rate for three years.
Dennis Wheatley,
Tenants representative,
Burcot, Norton and Windsor Gardens.
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