Government 'Should Return £6bn To Councils'

The government should give back £6bn to councils in the wake of the 1% social rent cut, stock-owning local authorities have said. In written evidence to parliament on the Welfare Reform and Work Bill, the Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH) said the policy would end plans for 20,000 new council homes. The group told the Public Bill Committee that if the changes had been anticipated in the self-financing settlement, council housing would have been valued “not at £29bn, but at £6bn less”.  “Councils have a legitimate case to argue that the government should now return this £6bn to them,” the group added. ARCH said the 1% rent reduction would mean that by 2020/21, councils would lose £2.4bn in income, and a further £30bn over the rest of the 30-year business plan period. Social landlords use a system called Existing Use Value Social Housing to value their stock, which is based on future rental income. Read more on the Parliament website.