WHEN
Wednesday 25th June at 1.30 p.m.
WHERE
At Abingdon Green opposite the Houses of
Parliament
PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
Tenants, including Winchester Tenant, Alan
Rickman (1)) will present the invoice to
Gordon Brown (or a Gordon Brown look alike)
They will be accompanied by supportive MPs.
On Wednesday 25th June
council tenants will take a giant invoice to
Parliament, demanding repayment of £17,340
million of council tenants rent monies which
government has used to pay for items to
subsidise the treasury and general tax
payer.
Moonlight Robbery
campaigners, say rents council tenants
should be used, as most assume they are,
exclusively for the management, maintenance
and repairs to their homes, yet £1,400
million of it this year and £17,340 between
1997 and 2005 of their rents has not been
used for these purposes. At the same time,
there is a shortfall of £2,250, according to
governments own figures in the funding
required to properly manage, maintain and
repair their homes.
Since Labour came to power
£2,850 million (2) of council tenants’ rents
has found its way directly into treasury
coffers. But this is the tip of the iceberg
as Council tenants’ rents are also used to
repay debt on capital investment in council
housing. This is patently unfair, since when
this capital asset is sold under the right
to buy, again the majority of the money goes
into the treasury.
Two government reports
show the level of shortfall in funding for
management, maintenance and repairs to
tenants homes. The first is from analysis
the Building Research Establishment carried
out in 2003. (3) If the figures in this
analysis are updated there is a £1,300
million shortfall in allowances given to
councils to manage and maintain council
homes.
The other report (4)
produced in April 2008 shows an additional
shortfall in funding for major repairs to
tenants homes of £950 million a year.
Meric Apak, (Chair of
Camden Federation of Tenants and Residents
Associations) said “Government consistently
refers to council housing as subsidised.
Nothing could be further from the truth. We
estimate that each council tenanted
household is subsidising the general tax
payer to the tune of around £13 a week,
which the majority of tenants know nothing
about. Like the 10p tax rate this government
is taxing poor people more and more. Our
rents should be used to properly maintain
and repair out homes. And we want back what
has been misappropriated from our rent
payments since 1997.”
Notes:
1) Alan Rickman has successfully
filed a case against the government for
misappropriation of rents in the European
court of human rights
2) See answer to
Parliamentary Question 131845 from Yvette
Cooper to Anne Snelgrove 30th April 2007)
3) See “Estimation of the
need to spend on maintenance and management
in the Local Authority housing stock” by BRE
Construction Division published by ODPM June
2003
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