Rent cut for housing association tenants
Housing minister John Healey is expected to announce that England’s five million housing association tenants will get their first ever rent reduction next year.
It is reported that the fall in rents of just under 1% from next April will be because of low inflation.
However, the National Housing Federation (NHF) has warned the cut will cost millions in lost income and threaten services.
The government said it was aware of concerns but added rent increases this year had been relatively high.
The report of a likely cut comes from BBC local government correspondent John Andrew who says housing association rents have never gone down before - not even during the two world wars or the Great Depression.
It comes about because rent changes are based on inflation as measured by the retail price index the previous September - and that figure was negative.
NHF chief executive David Orr told the BBC: “The government wants housing associations to deliver more new homes and more community services during the recession - and our sector is ready to meet that challenge.
“But faced with a cut in their incomes next year, housing associations may be forced into cutting rather than expanding the services they offer - and thousands of services could be at risk of cutbacks.”
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