11th January 2010
Tenants in West Dunbartonshire willhavea fairer, simpler rent system from 1st June this year, after West Dunbartonshire Council’s Housing, Environmental and Economic Development (HEED) agreed a new rent model last week.
The new model will have just 24 rent levels, a significant improvement on the current system adopted in 1998, which has 299 different rent levels and has no consistent approach to how rents are decided. Under the new model, rents will now be set according to the size of the property, the type of property and the general quality, making it a fairer approach. No additional income for the Council will be generated by the new model.
The decision to create a new rent model was supported by Tenants and Residents Groups, who were consulted in 2008 and agreed that the current rent model was unfair. Tenants were also asked for their views as part of a survey in April 2009, and as a result, 401 interviews with tenants were undertaken across Alexandria, Clydebank and Dumbarton. 99% of tenants surveyed thought that a new rent model was required and that a consistent approach to setting rents should be applied. All tenants were also asked for their views via the Council’s tenant newsletter, Housing Matters, in October 2009.
Under the new system, 48% of tenants will benefit from a reduction in their rent. For those tenants who will experience an increase in rent, these increases will be phased in over three years using a capping system, meaning no tenant will pay more than £3 per week extra per year as a result of the rent remodelling. However, normal annual cost-of-living rent increases will still be due to be paid, which will come into effect on 1st April each year.
Chair of the Council’s Housing, Environment and Economic Development Committee, Councillor William Hendrie, said: “Rents will now be set according to the size of property, the type of property and the general quality. This means that similar properties will now have similar rents, which was not always the case in the past. This is a much fairer and more transparent approach and one which the vast majority of tenants support.
He added: “Because of the capping system, no tenant will have an increase in rent of more than £3 per week each year. This means if someone’s rent was due to increase by £9 per week under the new model, this would actually only increase by £3 per week every year for three years, excluding the normal annual cost-of-living rent increases. For tenants who are due a rent reduction, this will come into force immediately on 1st June.”
