Rent for West Lothian council homes set to increase

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Average weekly rents for council homes in West Lothian are set to rise to £80.70 a week when the full council meets to agree the final budget of its five-year term.The rise - of £2.35 a week - is at the three per cent per annum strategy level agreed in February 2018.According to the depute chief executive Graeme Struthers it: “will enable high quality and responsive housing services to be maintained for tenants and allow key priorities to be delivered.”The decision will be taken by councillors on Tuesday morning.In a report to the council’s Services for the Community Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel (PDSP) Mr Struthers said: “Consultation on the three per cent strategy included housing network meetings, tenants, the tenants’ panel and social media.“The consultation carried out in 2017 as part of the strategy process showed that 69 per cent of respondents were in favour of building more council houses even if this meant an increase to rent, 81 per cent were in favour of investment in existing stock even if this meant an increase to rent, 73 per cent felt that their rent was affordable, and 85 per cent noted a preference for a three per cent rent increase.”Mr Struthers added that the three per cent increase compared favourably with other Scottish council rent rises and with rent increases by registered social landlords within West Lothian.Housing staff embarked on further engagement with tenants in November 2021.This was designed specifically to determine views on the proposed rent increase for 2022/23, and targeted tenant networks and the tenants’ panel, and was heavily promoted over tenants’ news and social media on a rolling programme of open feedback.The report added: “This provides reassurance that for the