A planned increase in Housing Executive rents of 4.2% from April as been slammed as “unjustifiable” by SDLP election candidate Emmet Doyle.
Emmet Doyle.
Mr Doyle said the planned increase of around £2.56 per week from 1 April was “no joke” and struggling tenants across the region would be asking how the rise could be put in context alongside the welfare reform agenda and the refusal of the DUP to protect the most vulnerable in society from the bedroom tax.
Mr Doyle said: “Struggling tenants across the region will be asking how such a rise can be put in context alongside the welfare reform agenda. This is unjustifiable given the current age of the majority of Housing Executive stock and the threat of the Bedroom Tax that the DSD Minister refuses to rule out.
“The statement from the Housing Executive refers to rents needing to be ‘sufficient to maintain accommodation at the standards expected by tenants and allow for adequate investment in the stock.’
“I don’t know what world those who have come up with this price increase are living in, but it is not the areas where I visit tenants in damp accommodation which have had little investment in many years, and where schemes for improvements and grants for essential adaptions are being cut to the bone.”
Mr Doyle said the Housing Executive needed to listen to its tenants on the issue and halt the increase.
He concluded: “It will mean the average weekly rent will be £63.46 excluding rates, small change to some who have made this decision, but a huge stretch for tenants and families who are struggling.”
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