New rents revealed for council houses in Blackpool including on Grange Park and Mereside

Council tenants will see their rents rise by almost eight per cent in order to support more investment into social housing in Blackpool.

The increase of 7.7 per cent, approved at the council's annual budget meeting, follows a five per cent increase last year and will mean people pay an extra £6 on average weekly rents of around £77.

Coun Mark Smith, cabinet member for levelling up (place), said even with the increase council house rents were cheaper than the private sector. He said a tenant living in a three-bedroom semi-detached council house in Blackpool would pay around £408 a month in rent, compared to £850 in the private rented sector according to property website Rightmove.

But Coun Paul Galley, leader of the Conservative group, said his members would not support the rent rise and warned a £6 a week increase "is a big number for people who are just getting by".

Coun Neal Brookes said money had to be put into the Housing Revenue Account "for the future - not for this year, or next year but the next 30 years". He added: "Our rent levels are the fifth lowest in the country which reflects the people we are looking after."

A report setting out the reasons for the rent rise said "rental income has been impacted by the impacts of the pandemic on customers and continues to face pressure in the current cost of living crisis."

However more than 83 per cent of tenants receive welfare benefits including towards their housing costs, and despite cost of living pressures "overall rent collection rates have remained high". Support for tenants includes financial advisors working as part of the rents team and a separate project assisting the long-term unemployed back into the labour market.

Blackpool Council owns around 5,000 houses which are managed by its wholly owned company Blackpool Coastal Housing. New houses have recently been built at Mereside and Grange Park council estates. These schemes include construction of 131 homes at Grange Park as part of a £20m investment, while £10m has been invested in building 75 new homes at Troutbeck Crescent on Mereside.