Call for action on Council estate maintenance standards

Not surprisingly many tenants are bemused as rents continue to rise while maintenance standards on estates fall.

Fly tipping on Green Lane Acomb garage forecourt

Fly tipping on Green Lane (Acomb) garage forecourt today

Council tenants have faced a 28% increase in rent levels over the last 5 years.

The York Council is expected to have a £15 million surplus balance on its housing account at the end of this year.

Yet little has been invested in improvements and communal areas are too often targets for graffiti and dumping.

Weeks elapse before clean ups are arranged

York Council Housing rents and balances. Click to enlarge

York Council Housing rents and balances. Click to enlarge

Strangely the York Council housing  department is the only part of the local authority which has seen no cuts at all in funding during the last 4 years yet service standards are declining.

There is little evidence that the Labour Councillors who are responsible for Council housing ever routinely visit estates to ensure that service standards are acceptable.

Time for a change of approach we think!

639 York Council tenants affected by removal of spare room subsidy

639 of York’s 7803 Council tenants were affected last year when the “spare room subsidy” was removed.

New figures reveal that 267 of them now have new rent arrears.

None have been issued with eviction notices.

To deal with hardship cases , the Council has a budget of £300,000 for the current financial year.

Only £207,272 (72.4%) had been allocated by the end of January.

The Council had previously said that it had 1347 people on its housing list waiting for one bedroomed accommodation. Many of these are currently occupying larger properties which would be released for families if under-occupation could be eliminated.

Despite there being numerous one bedroomed properties available on the open market in York, the Council has so far declined to use its £13 million housing surplus to purchase some of them.

A one bedroomed flat of Green Lane in Acomb has a guide price of £80,000

The policy is likely to be challenged at a Council meeting taking place at the end of the month.

Council house rent arrears in York

Council house rent arrears in York click for source document

Council house rent arrears in York click for source document

The increasingly ubiquitous Cllr Burton has taken to the York Press today to tell us that rent arrears have increased since the abolition of the spare room subsidy (bedroom tax).

Sadly for him that simply isn’t true.

 

The actual figures can be found on the Councils web site (click graphic).

They show that, with the improvement on the economy, fewer tenants are now in arrears than was the case 3 years ago.

In total 1017 tenants were affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy.

The government awarded the York Council £88,730.96 to offset any hardship that may have been caused by the change to benefit arrangements.

The total amount of discretionary housing payment spent on ‘removal of the spare room subsidy’ cases this financial year is £42,344.74.

154 tenants received payments.

NB. The Labour Council recently arbitrarily removed 2400 people from the housing waiting list.

 

£16 million owed to York Council

The Council has published a list of the outstanding amounts owed to it in each of the last 3 years.
Uncollected debts
The size of the debt shows an upward trend which could lead to cash flow problems if not reversed.

Although many of the debts will eventually be recovered, some will not.

There have been significant increases in the amounts owed on business rates, former tenant arrears and sundry debts.

In total the amounts owed have increased from £12 million to £16 million over a 3 year period.

Council House rent arrears up 20% – number of evictions up

The value of Council tenants rent arrears has increased over the last 2 years.

Freedom of information response click to enlarge

Freedom of information response click to enlarge

The amount owed has risen from £622,763 in June 2011 to £741,570 this year.

3159 tenants are now in arrears

The number of evictions for arrears has also doubled (but only to a relatively modest 14)

42 people presented themselves to the Council last year as “homeless”.

23 of them were subsequently accepted by the Council as homeless.

The figures were revealed through a Freedom of Information request.

There is no record of the council having discussed these worrying trends