Winchester Lib Dems slam scandalous tenant tax

5.16.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 15th Jul 2008

Martin Tod and Southwark MP Simon Hughes talk to Cyril Gilbert-Wood about the £30 a week of local tenants' rent currently going to the Government.

Figures newly obtained by the Liberal Democrats show that the Government is planning to keep nearly £200m of council tenants' rent this year - of which over £8m is taken from Winchester City Council tenants.

Every year, the Treasury decides how much local authorities need to spend on new homes and maintaining council houses. Those, such as Winchester City Council, that it deems to take more in rent than they need to spend pay a 'negative subsidy' to the Treasury, which is then redistributed in part to authorities deemed to have a greater need.

However, this year the Treasury is collecting £195,816,938 more than it is redistributing. This extra money will remain with the exchequer and will not be spent on council housing.

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Winchester, Martin Tod, commented:

"These figures are a disgrace. Local council tenants effectively end up paying a £30 a week stealth tax straight to the treasury - and local residents get nothing back for that money.

It's completely wrong for tenants to be paying this kind of stealth tax, particularly when so many are under such pressure from increased prices for fuel and food.

This is a Robin Hood tax. Money paid by hard-working people - often on below average incomes - which could be used for repairs or to increase the number of council houses -- just leaves the Winchester area. This is particularly crazy when there are thousands on the waiting list for social housing.

Money paid by local tenants should be kept in Winchester area and spent on improving homes and building more council houses."

On July 7th, Mark Oaten MP signed an early day motion backing local tenants and calling on the Government to change the financing system for Council Housing:

"I'm working with my Lib Dem colleagues in parliament to make sure that the money from council rents stays local and is spent to support local tenants.

The Liberal Democrats are committed to ring-fencing council rents and making sure that they stay in the local area."