Blackpool rent rise will hit 'those on low incomes'

The 4.1 per cent hike was agreed by 19 votes to 16 at a full meeting of the council, with the Conservative group opposing the move which they warned would harm low income families already suffering from increased living costs.

Tory group leader Coun Tony Williams said rising costs were worse for “those on lower incomes who can’t afford it.”

He said: “You make reference to these being the lowest council rents in the North West, but it’s also one of the lowest paid areas in the North West.

“The government guidelines are just guidelines, and it’s this council’s choice what it decides to do.”

Coun Ivan Taylor, cabinet member with responsibility for housing on the Labour-run council, said the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) which controls local authority spending on council housing, had changed its policy and now expected rents to rise to fund investment.

He said: “It’s a choice between doing what we have been asked to do, and putting the rents up in order to deliver our ambitious investment programme, or seeing that programme inevitably suffer.

“Average rents in Blackpool remain the lowest in the North West so it won’t have a massive impact in that sense.”

The 4.1 per cent, which had already been approved by the executive, means weekly rents will increase to £72.97 from around £70.

The increase will generate an additional £713,000 to invest back into the town’s 5,000 council properties managed by Blackpool Coastal Housing.

Currently £10m is being invested in building 75 new houses at Troutbeck Crescent on Mereside, while work has begun to build 131 new homes at Grange Park as part of a £20m development.

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