Rent increase for council tenants opposed

Conservative leader Wendy Thompson said the city did not have to follow central government recommendations

Opposition leaders have expressed unease over a 7.7% rise to social housing rents in Wolverhampton.

Council bosses approved the increase as they want to plough hundreds of millions of pounds into the city's housing stock over the next five years.

But the Conservative group claimed it would have a detrimental effect on the livelihood of families already struggling to feed their children.

The Labour-led local authority insisted the increase was in line with government recommendations.

Councillor Wendy Thompson, leader of the city's Conservative group, said she believed everybody should be decently housed.

But she claimed £2.3bn worth of government support hadn't been spent properly by the City of Wolverhampton Council.

"If £2.3bn isn’t enough then I can tell you that there are an awful lot of councils that would have liked that amount of money," she said.

“We understand about the 7.7% but that is only a recommendation from the government. That doesn’t mean to say you have got to do it."

'Balance the books'

Ms Thompson said the rise amounted to an extra £7 a week, calling it a lot of money for families in dire straits.

But councillor Steve Evans, cabinet member for city housing, said the rise was needed to balance the books and make sure people lived in good-quality homes.

“This rise will still mean that rents in Wolverhampton are below the average in the West Midlands," he said.

"They will still be below the national average and less than half of what it costs per week to rent in the private sector.

“We don’t have enough money to do what we want right now and anything less than 7.7% will make it even more difficult."

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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