THURROCK Council is freezing some jobs to stem a £1.4million deficit in its housing revenue account, despite a 7 per cent increase in rents this year reports the Local Democracy Reporter.
Social landlords were set to raise rents by 11.1 per cent to allow for inflation of the consumer price index plus 1 per cent but the Government has capped social housing rent increases to 7 per cent.
As a result, Thurrock Council will institute a 5 per cent vacancy rate, holding posts which become vacant for a year before they are recruited to and not employing agency staff to cover those posts.
A report to the housing overview and scrutiny committee said: “This will mean holding posts which are currently or become vacant during the year open before being recruited to. This also extends to not covering the post with temporary or agency staff in order to realise the saving, unless it is absolutely essential and will otherwise cause significant detriment to tenants.
“There are currently number of vacant posts within the housing revenue account, it is envisaged that this will cause minimum disruption to key front line services. Furthermore, by applying a vacant factor, it eliminates the need from staff redundancies which will have a negative impact on the services, as well as incurring additional expenditure.”
In addition the council will halve its £0.634m assisted decorating scheme for residents.
The rent increases for social housing will mean an increase of £5.40 a week for a one-bedroom home, up from £77.14 to £82.54. A three-bedroom property will see a £7.35 increase from £104.95 to £112.30.
Affordable housing rents will also rise 7 per cent with a one-bedroom home rising £9 to £140 and a three-bedroom property increasing £14 to £211.
These are for newly developed units which are based on an affordable rent which cannot exceed 80 per cent of the equivalent market rent. Service charges are also set to rise.
The report, which will be considered by the committee on Tuesday, said: “In light of the decision by central government to limit the amount by which councils can raise dwelling rents, it is proposed that service charges are increased by 10.1 per cent for 2023/24. This will yield and additional £0.111million.”
Absolutely disgraceful, rent up during a cost of living crisis, the police must get involved in this money losing scam asap.. the people of Thurrock have a right to know where £500 million went missing
Actually explains why they’ve not really done maintenance till their properties are condemned. Some tenants have to complain about damp and mould issues for 20yrs plus before something is done and they need to explain why they are refusing disabled tenants access lifetime adaptable properties weather by swaps or bidding that the tenant has offered to get funding and pay for the adaptions and Essex do the equipment supply for them anyway.