CLLR Lynn Worrall, Thurrock’s portfolio holder for housing, has hit out at last week’s Budget statement and local Tory press release.
Speaking on Tuesday (14 July), she said: “I have come to expect this government to promise much but deliver not just less, but less than nothing. I have come to expect them to hold out one hand with a gift, but use the other to take even more from those who can least afford it.
“And unfortunately, I have come to expect Thurrock Tories to blindly follow their so-called leaders without thought for the consequences.
“Let’s have a look at Osborne’s proposals.
“First, reducing rents by one per cent a year; marvellous if you’re a hard working person in a family on a low income – and I accept that.
“On the other side of the coin, cutting around a pound a week from hard-up tenants’ outgoings isn’t going to make a great deal of difference.
“And how do people think we are paying for the new homes we’re planning and the improvements being made to damp and mould in our homes, let alone the million upon million being spent in the Transforming Homes programme.
“All this is being paid for by a small and affordable increase in our already low rents, we budgeted for 2½ per cent a year. A one per cent cut not only wipes out that extra money, but goes further – and for four years, that’s a 3½ per cent cut on planned spending next year, the same again the year after … and two years after that too.
“Million upon million out of the housing budget, the only budget allowed to improve the homes we own and rent.
“Not so clever if you’re still waiting for your home to be transformed!”
She said: “And then there’s the comment about those earning £30,000 or more, having to pay full market rent – not our council rents, but an amount similar to that in the private sector.
“This government claims to be in favour of work, aiming to encourage aspiration and, top use a horrible phrase, to ‘better’ themselves.
“Ask yourself, you’re on £20,000 and get offered a job on £30,000 – what do you do? Take the extra income and nearly double your rent or stay put and still be able to afford your home?
“And I’m not at all sure how playing around with council rents – not private rents, but just a part of the market – will fund ‘the new National living wage for those on low income’. Will businesses, which pay the wages, somehow benefit from the rent cut or the rent increases?
“And don’t think the extra rent collected will contribute to the one per cent – or the real 3½ per cent cut. All the extra money Thurrock collects, it will have to give straight back to the Treasury – and I doubt we’ll be allowed to take the costs of the five or six extra staff we’ll need to employ will be taken into account either.”
Cllr Worrall explained that social rents in Thurrock are hundreds of pounds a month less expensive that private landlords charge – £325 for a one-bedroomed home and £856 for a three bedroomed property.
She said: “Our tenants do not have to declare their income to us once they have a tenancy, so accurate figures for today are not available.
“We are looking at ways we can find out these figures – we reckon somewhere between ten and 20 per cent of tenants (between 1,000 and 2,000) earn £30,000 or more – but somehow we are going to have to look at all of our tenants’ incomes and then work out what they’re going to have to pay.
“It’s not a nice thing to have to do, and it’s not a nice thing to have done to you either whether you earn £30,000 or not.”
