Council House Rent Increases (Hansard, 19 December 1983)

§ Lord Dean of Beswick
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, average council house rents in England and Wales have risen 117 per cent. between 1979–80 and 1983–84.

§ Lord Dean of Beswick
My Lords, is the Minister aware that in cash terms that means a weekly increase of £7.65, to be followed by another 75 pence this year, as dictated by the Secretary of State for the Environment? Is the Minister aware that that is a 10 per cent. increase—

Noble Lords
Reading!

§ Lord Dean of Beswick
I am not reading. my Lords. Is the Minister aware that that is a 10 per cent. increase in council house rents—an increase which is in fact twice the present rise in the cost of living? I should like to ask the Minister the following question. Bearing in mind that over 50 per cent. of council house tenants have borne the full brunt of this financial attack on their standard of living without any rebate or social security payments from the Government, when will the Secretary of State and the Government cease this attack on council house tenants who do not wish, or in some cases—

Noble Lords
Speech!

§ Lord Dean of Beswick
—cannot afford, to buy their council houses?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, perhaps it is due to the season of the year, but the noble Lord's supplementary question reminded me of the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland. When in power, the party opposite had a policy that rents should keep pace with earnings. That conspicuously failed to materialise. By 1979 it was apparent that drastic action would have to be undertaken. It was taken, and the corrections were made in the three years 1980–81 and 1982–83. That has now worked through the system, and I am glad to say that actual rents for the current financial year show increases of only 3 per cent. over last year.
With regard to the point about the Government compelling local authorities to increase council house rents by 75 pence, or whatever was the figure. the noble Lord will know perfectly well that that is quite 480 untrue. The Government provide guidelines to the local authorities, and it is up to them to do their own thing in the local circumstances that pertain.

§ Lord Dean of Beswick
My Lords, the Minister must be aware that the Government guidelines state that the 75 pence must come from either rents or rates. It may well be that in his replies the Minister could be a little more factual.

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, as I have said, the Government do not compel authorities to raise rents. The increase of 75 pence in the local contribution that authorities are assumed to be able to make towards meeting their housing costs is determined for the purpose of calculating entitlement to housing subsidy in 1984–85. The increase can be met from rents or rates, or from a combination of the two. As I said before, it is up to the local authority in question how it decides to get in the money that is required.

§ Lord Graham of Edmonton
My Lords, does not the response from the Minister simply confirm that what passes for housing policy from the present Government is a scandal and a disgrace? Instead of creating a special class of citizen, a privileged class—and that is the council tenant who wants to buy his house—how about giving some time to the lot of the council tenant who does not want to buy his house, and to the homeless? Do the Minister and his colleagues intend to eliminate the public sector in housing regardless of the consequences?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
No, my Lords, of course we do not—to answer the last part of the noble Lord's supplementary question. So far as the first part of it is concerned, I understand that the Question is to do with council house rents, not the building policy of this, or of any other, Government.

§ Baroness Fisher of Rednal
My Lords, will the noble Lord agree that the higher council house rents rise, the more people have to resort to housing benefit? Therefore it is a case of diminishing returns. Is the Minister aware that in some parts of the country as many as 50 per cent. of council house tenants are now on full housing benefit?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, that is why we are broadly in line with the perceived policy, the announced policy, of the last Labour Government.

§ Lord Dean of Beswick
My Lords, can the Minister then turn his mind to part of my first Question? Can he given an undertaking that the Government will not be imposing annual rent increases of 10 per cent. on council house tenants in the future?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, no, of course I cannot do anything of the sort. I do not know what the earnings increase compared with a previous year will be. I do not know what the rate of inflation will be. I do not know what the cost of housing to local authorities will be. What however I can say is that the proposed rise suggested in the Government rent guidelines will compare favourably with the earnings increase.