Hike up council rents to pay for tax cuts

1:47pm Friday 9th November 2007

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COUNCIL houses? I thought Maggie Thatcher had more or less gotten rid of them when she introduced the right-to-buy during her time as PM.

But no, there are still plenty left in the area, and there are people willing to take desperate measures to get them.

I was intrigued by the story of the fellow who climbed to the top of the Wycombe District Council offices last Friday to protest about the fact that he was about to become homeless, and he needed the council to house him.

It beats me why they needed to bring in a fire crew and police to persuade him to come down. WDC should have just sent a few councillors up there to talk to him about their local plans and their political manifestoes. That would have soon got him off the roof - he probably would have paid to get away.

As it was, he stayed up there until he was assured of a house. WDC says it would have given him one anyway, but that's not the issue for me. I was more interested to find out why someone would fight so hard to get a council house in the first place, so I did a bit of research.

I asked the Free Press property correspondent to find out the average rent for a three-bedroom home. Then I asked the chief reporter the average charge for a similar-sized council house.

The results of these inquiries made everything clear. It costs £795 per month to rent a private three-bed in Stokenchurch; it's £197.58 per fortnight for the same type of council property in the same village. That means private tenants pay almost double - and they don't get the council repair and decorations service.

I'm half tempted myself now to get up on the roof of WDC. But on second thoughts, maybe I'll stay in and campaign for councillors to raise their rents - so they can fund a council tax cut for the rest of the population who don't get the benefit of this ultra-cheap housing.