Monday, December 08, 2008
What on earth is a "Negative Subsidy"
City Council's cabinet meets on Wednesday to discuss, amongst other things, the Housing Revenue Account. Fascinating paper for the aficionado and one of the aspects that is truly fascinating is the "through the looking glass" reasoning by HMG.
For all the time that I've been a councillor, governments of all persuasion have dedicated (part of) themselves to trying to ensure that everyone has a decent home. In this part of the world, especially since property prices went up so sharply, many people just can't afford to buy a place. So they're reliant on lower cost homes for rent provided by housing associations and by the Council. The difference between "market" rents and council house rents has typically been made up by a subsidy from the Government.
But in this topsy turvey world this is now a "negative subsidy" - to all intents and purposes a tax on those who can least afford it.
And it's now EIGHT MILLION POUNDS! This has increased from about £6m in 2005 and in that same time, rental income is said to have increased by only £1.7m.
I'm pretty gobsmacked about this and am now starting to research it further.
For all the time that I've been a councillor, governments of all persuasion have dedicated (part of) themselves to trying to ensure that everyone has a decent home. In this part of the world, especially since property prices went up so sharply, many people just can't afford to buy a place. So they're reliant on lower cost homes for rent provided by housing associations and by the Council. The difference between "market" rents and council house rents has typically been made up by a subsidy from the Government.
But in this topsy turvey world this is now a "negative subsidy" - to all intents and purposes a tax on those who can least afford it.
And it's now EIGHT MILLION POUNDS! This has increased from about £6m in 2005 and in that same time, rental income is said to have increased by only £1.7m.
I'm pretty gobsmacked about this and am now starting to research it further.
Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home
<< Home
