Dundee council house rents are set to rise by up to 5.5% next year, with an average rise of between £3.75 and £4 per week.
Three options for rises between 5% and 5.5% have been proposed by the SNP administration and are due to go to consultation with councillors, tenants’ groups and housing officers before a final decision is made in January.
The proposed rises were revealed in a confidential presentation at the city chambers last week, but The Courier has seen a leaked copy of the 5%, 5.25% and 5.5% options and housing convener Jimmy Black confirmed the news.
However, he stressed that they were only proposals and tenants were free to accept one of the three options or reject them altogether for a lower figure, which would then lead to cuts in maintenance or repairs budgets.
Dundee Labour group leader Kevin Keenan says he is opposed to the high rises, saying he would prefer to see a lower figure, with the council spending less on repairs and maintenance as much of the housing stock already meets the Scottish Quality Housing Standard.
Councillor Keenan says figures show that last year, for one house alone, the council spent £15,514 getting it up to scratch, while another the previous year cost nearly £20,000.
Mr Black says the rise is necessary to finance the huge amount the council has had to borrow to bring the city’s council housing stock up to the national standard.
He further insists there is no link between the proposed rent rises and the costs of bringing homes up to standard for re-letting, stating it is because bad tenants have been ”trashing” homes.
Mr Keenan says over the course of last year, a total of 58 jobs cost over £5,000 each, covering maintenance, repairs and re-letting. The previous year there were 52 jobs exceeding £5,000.
Continued…
These examples only reflect a very small number of properties, but the amount spent on repairs and maintenance to re-letting properties was potentially almost £1 million in 2010/11 and more than £850,000 last year.
Mr Keenan questions why the council continues spending that amount on re-lets as a huge amount of work has already been done to ensure council housing stock meets the required standard.
He said: ”For some time I have had concerns about the money the housing department spends. I would have liked to see a reduction in repairs and re-let costs considering the amount of our city’s housing stock that now meets the Scottish Quality Housing Standard.”
He added: ”We should never have to spend anything like £19,827 to get a tenant to take a house from Dundee City Council considering the work that is progressing to improve the stock so that every house meets the Scottish Quality Housing Standard.”
Last week, councillors were invited to a meeting of the housing department to see the projected figures for next year, which illustrated the rises. As well as the options outlined above, projections for the following two years showed 4% rises year on year.
Mr Keenan asked: ”I would like to know how proactive the housing department is being to protect our stock. I just think that we should be looking to hold down rents at a time when everyone is having difficulty with their finances.”
Mr Black responded: ”The spending on the Scottish Quality Housing Standard is on providing things like new kitchens, bathrooms and heating. Re-let work is done to put the place back in condition after the tenant has left and sometimes the tenant has completely wrecked the house.
”We do try to pursue them and attempt to get money back from them but more often than not they are on benefits and have no money.”
Following consultation, the proposed rises will go before committee in January.