Housing Bodies Dismiss ‘Pay To Stay’

Housing groups – including CIH, NHF, Shelter and the Council of Mortgage Lenders - have poured cold water on government plans to charge higher earning social tenants more rent.  In responses to a CLG consultation on ‘pay to stay’, housing organisations suggest the plans are unworkable and call for a wider debate on rent setting across the affordable housing sector.  The consultation suggested social tenants earning more than a specified income should be forced to pay more rent.  The consultation asked whether the level should be set at £60,000, £80,000 or £100,000, and said rents would be increased to either 80 per cent of market rent in the short term, and full market rent if the necessary legislation was introduced.  Read more on Inside Housing.