Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what safeguards his Department plans to put in place to ensure that people who leave their council homes as a result of the proposed pay to stay scheme are able to afford private rented property in the same area.

Brandon Lewis

It is only fair that social tenants who can pay more should pay more. There are more than 40,000 tenants in social housing who benefit from subsidised rents but where the annual household income is over £50,000. We have however consulted on a proposal for a taper to ensure that work incentives are protected. If adopted, this would mean that households towards the lower end of the proposed income thresholds would see a low rise in their rent below market rental values in areas where market rent is higher than social rent. Of course, if tenants on incomes well above the proposed threshold wish to take up a rental opportunity in the private sector then this should be encouraged to free up social housing for those most in need.