HOUSING BENEFIT AND COUNCIL RENTS

Early day motion 150, tabled 17 December 1998 by Austin Mitchell (Labour). Signed by 176 members.

That this House deplores the unfair anomaly of relatively low income council tenants where an increasing number of councils, currently over 90 per cent., are compelled to divert council house rents into rent rebates for council tenants as a result of the Local Government and Housing Act 1990; condemns the totally unacceptable principle that the poor should subsidise the poorest in this way, particularly since private housing association tenants are not asked to do the same because their housing benefit is paid by the Exchequer so that in effect council tenants are paying twice, once through taxes to pay the housing benefit of all tenants be they housing association, private or council, and secondly through their rent to pay the housing benefit of the poorest of their fellow tenants; and urges the Government to end this practice which asks council tenants to pay both rents and taxes to fund benefit payments when it introduces resource accounting by returning funding of rent rebate to central government thereby enabling the ú1.3 billion rent money released to be redistributed fairly like capital receipts and be used for council housing expenditure to which it should be dedicated.

Signatures by party: Labour 122, Liberal Democrat 32, Labour/Co-operative 8, Conservative 4, Plaid Cymru 4, DUP 1, Independent 1, Scottish National Party 1, UKUP 1, UUP 1, Unknown 1.