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Wokingham will receive £5.1 million over the next four years to help improve its social housing stock
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Cash injection to spruce up council houses

By Victoria Corbett
February 25, 2011

Wokingham will receive £5.1 million over the next four years to help improve its social housing stock.

The money for Wokingham Borough Council’s housing is part of a £1.6 billion fund for local authorities to help bring social housing up to the Government’s Decent Homes Standard, a benchmark all authorities are being asked to meet.

Wokingham is one of four councils in the south east sharing £19 million of the cash between now and 2015.

The borough pays 44 per cent, or £5.7 million, of the total rental income it receives from tenants back to the Government, and this is set to increase by £846,000 in 2011/12.

The council hopes to buy its council stock and keep all the rent it collects under plans being discussed by the Government, although it is understood the price tag would be tens of millions of pounds.

The council claims the high percentage of cash paid to the Government in rent has prevented it from being able to carry out repairs and modernisation of the housing.

The cash awards, announced last week, were given to councils which made a strong case for investment need.

Councillor David Lee, leader of the council, said: “We are delighted because the housing is still getting older and older. We are just about at a position where we might be buying the whole stock anyway.”

The Labour Government set a 2010 deadline for all council housing to be up to the Decent Homes Standard, however many areas have failed to achieve this, including Wokingham, due to lack of funds.

Housing minister Grant Shapps said: “£1.6 billion of the funding is for council homes and some 50 local authorities will benefit from this funding – allowing them to improve around 150,000 houses.

“Too many families live in non-decent accommodation, so I am pleased that so many of them will see difference due to this funding.”

The council was due to approve an increase in rent for tenants of 6.8 per cent, which will equate to an extra £5.75 for the average tenant, at a meeting on Tuesday.

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Most recent user comments 6 of 6

Sometimes important things need ratifying but if you repeat yourself verbatim it can be boring :-)

dcstar
28/02/2011 at 12:47

@dcstar - could you write another nearly identical post please - I'm not quite sure I got the first 2

Thanks :)

Ruffster
28/02/2011 at 09:41

You make this 5.7million over five years sound like a gift!!!!!! all that happens is that we get back some of the money we send to Government every year (at the moment) anyway and if we hadn't been doing that we wouldn't need this REFUN because WBC would have been able to keep our homes decent in the first place. David Lee says "We are just about at a position where we might be buying the whole stock anyway" but he doesn't say to buy the stock WBC will have to take on a debt of £100 million and who is going to pay for that Mr Lee oh that's right it has to be paid for from rents collected how long is that going to take to pay back and how much per year is it going to drain the the rent revenue account? Are you going to be able to sustain housing to the decent standard or is the 5.7million throwing good money after bad?????

How lucky you are Ruffster and Be Still My Beating Giro to be in full high paid employment and be Mortgage free (debt) of good health and happily married or still living at home with Mummy and Daddy. Remember you are only ever one weeks wages way from being on the streets and I hope that neither of you find yourself in that position. Let me educate you a little without patronising you, of course, Social housing exists all over the country not just in Wokingham and it's purpose, originally, was to offer affordable rents to the working classes it still does and is housing of choice for many people. Sadly some people are not as lucky as others and need a little help and Social Housing provides that help why should those less fortunate than you (obvioulsy) be labelled scroungers etc? bacause they live in affordable rented accomodation.

dcstar
27/02/2011 at 07:10

You are making this sound like a gift, this is just a reduction in the amount of money from tenants rents that WBC send annualy to Government. If we wern't having to send nearly half our money to government in the first place our homes wouldn't need "decent homes funding" WBC would have been able to maintain them properly in the first place. How can this be a good thing? David Lee comments that " We are just about at a position where we might be buying the whole stock anyway" Yes for £100 million debt and who pays that debt off Mr Lee?

The country not just Wokingham has social housing Ruffster and Be Still My Beating Giro. One day and hopefully sooner than later you may need it? lose your job, lose your home, lose your partner or get some terrible illness that renders you unable to earn the obviously high incomes you earn and poof suddenly you are a Giro Horde or a scrounger!!!!! It is housing of choice (at the moment) and many tenants are working full time but not earning sufficiently to have a home owned by a mortgage company or indeed earn enough to pay private rent. Are you both mortgage free? Still living at home scrounging of Mummy and Daddy? Or just simply ignorant Mmmmmmmmm I suspect the latter.