Rent Arrears

HC Deb 17 February 1988 vol 127 cc973-5

14. Mr. David Shaw

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he is satisfied with the performance of local authorities in reducing the level of their rent arrears.

Mr. Waldegrave

No, Sir.

Mr. Shaw

Does my hon. Friend agree that, in the main, it is Labour local authorities which have large amounts of rent arrears, and which, by not collecting their rent arrears, often claim to the Government that they are short of money and are always asking the Government for more money? Would it not be better if they collected those rent arrears first and so had more money to spend?

Mr. Waldegrave

The facts speak for themselves. The 10 worst authorities, which account for a third of the total of nearly £200 million rent arrears, are Labour -controlled. Most of the top 20 are Labour. So I have to confirm what my hon. Friend has said.

There are, of course, many differences between Labour authorities. Why, for example, does Walsall, a Labour council, have rent arrears of about 13 per cent., whereas Bolton, also a Labour council, has 1.2 per cent.? The reason is that one is much better managed than the other.

Mr. James Lamond

Is the Minister aware that Oldham, a Labour council, was so fed up with trying to collect its arrears that it put the task out to private contractors on a commission basis? They soon gave up, because they could make no impression, either.

Mr. Waldegrave

I suspect that the position there, as in some of the London boroughs, had been out of control for so long that it was beyond anyone's capacity to put it right quickly.

Mr. Holt

Would my hon. Friend care to examine the records of the two local authorities in my constituency — Middlesbrough and Langbaurgh — and see how appalling Middlesbrough's record is compared with that of Langbaurgh? Middlesbrough is Labour-controlled and Langbaurgh has a hung council. Yet, in their turn, the Government treat Langbaurgh shabbily in the rate support grant and treat Middlesbrough as though they had too much money to give away. When the Government act in that way, how does it encourage local authorities to collect rents?

Mr. Waldegrave

There is no direct relationship between outstanding rents and rate support grant. Arrears of rent are, however, a consideration in HIP allocations.

Mr. Bell

I wish to correct the statement made by the hon. Member for Langbaurgh (Mr. Holt) concerning Middlesbrough council. Will the Minister accept that Middlesbrough council runs services to its community, has rates and rent in proportion to those services and has a record second to none throughout the country, let alone the north-east?

Mr. Waldegrave

I shall not get involved in a civil war at Langbaurgh, if I can help it. The House should agree that it is scandalous that there are authorities that have up to 38 per cent. of their collectable rent outstanding. That is evidence of incredibly bad management.

Mr. John Marshall

Is it not the duty of local authorities not to curry favour with a small minority of non-rent paying tenants, but rather to carry out their duties to all ratepayers and to the vast majority of tenants who pay their rents?

Mr. Waldegrave

I agree with my hon. Friend. Rent arrears are only one sign of bad management. Where there are rent arrears there are other symptoms of bad management, such as too many squatted properties and too many voids.

Mr. Soley

Creative statistics will not get the Minister out of this one. His Government have cut housing benefit, as he knows, seven times and will do so again in April. That means that a nurse will pay about 40 per cent. of her net salary before being entitled to housing benefit. They raised rents again by £1.60 yesterday. They have taken away all the benefits to the rented sector and wonder why it is collapsing. What right has the Minister to talk about choice for tenants in those circumstances? Why does he not tell the hon. Member for Dover (Mr. Shaw), who is so concerned about this, that his council is busy selling off an estate over the heads of the tenants, when they do not want their estate to be sold off? What sort of choice is that?

Mr. Waldegrave

The hon. Gentleman wisely changes the subject as much as he has done because he is on weak ground on rents. He has not addressed himself to the question to which I would be interested to know the answer. Why does Walsall do so much worse than Bolton? I do not believe that there is any difference in housing benefit between Walsall and Bolton. There are some badly managed councils, and, as the figures show, the great majority are Labour-controlled.