Bid to cut Highland Council rent hike by 2% fails despite fears it will cause ‘hardship’ for tenants while the administration argued the rise is needed to fund maintenance, repairs, and debt
A cross-party bid by 15 councillors to reverse a decision to hike Highland Council housing rents by eight per cent this year has failed after being voted down 37 to 25.
Inverness West Liberal Democrat Councillor Alex Graham sequestered a special meeting to try and persuade the council to stick to a six per cent increase.
That move was widely supported after the council found the financial impact would be "minimal" while all other impacts were considered “positive” or “no impact”.
The projected budget for the next financial year makes clear that the payments for loans is expected to account for £32.5 million - that is 43 per cent of the whole housing revenue budget.
By comparison, the amount spent on repairs and maintenance stands at just 31 per cent or £23.2 million.
What was at stake were two contrasting views.
The first being that the rise is too steep, will cause hardship for tenants, will not deliver the level of maintenance claimed and the bulk of the money will go on debt maintenance.
The second said the rise was needed to maintain and even increase work on properties, provide warmer, more energy efficient homes, and to manage the “significant burden” of debt.
Clr Graham argued strongly against the hike, saying: “If the council agrees to this, then council rents will go up 20 per cent in three years. I think that is quite unacceptable to have such a steep increase in such a short space of time.
“This will cause hardship for a great many tenants whose income will not go up eight per cent this year and almost certainly has not gone up 20 per cent in the last three years.”
He also dismissed more political claims made by the SNP that Westminster was partly to blame because of a refusal to write off historic debt, saying the majority of the current debt was accrued in the last 15 years.
Opposing that was Inverness Provost and housing and property chairwoman Glynis Campbell-Sinclair who feels council rents in the Highlands are among the lowest in the country.
“And they will continue to be low,” she said, “22 per cent of tenants are on housing benefit and a further 39 per cent are on universal credit, this means that at least 61 per cent of our tenants are in receipt of some form of support to help them with their rents.
“The proposals in front of you are measured in terms of impact upon tenants while balancing the need to create a sustainable and efficient housing estate – we need to accelerate improvements of our housing stock for the benefit of our tenants”.
