9th
Mar 2022
A Labour MP has contacted Housing Secretary Michael Gove asking for cast iron reassurances that PRS landlords will not ‘pocket’ the government’s once in a lifetime council tax giveaway.
Approximately 20m households in council tax bands A to D – including a guesstimated 95 per cent of social and private rented properties, will be given a £150 rebate as confirmed by the government’s £3bn council tax refund scheme.
But there are many tenants living in HMOs who pay a monthly all inclusive fee to landlords for amongst other things, energy, broadband and of course council tax.
MP Clive Betts, currently chair of the all-party Levelling Up select committee, is asking for clarity from Gove on how those tenants in HMOs will receive their £150 rebates.
In his letter to Gove, Betts says: “Where households rent their property but the landlord pays the council tax and then charges it to the household, will the landlord receive the rebate? If so, will such households receive their rebate through the discretionary fund.”
He added: “Payments must go to tenants and we need to avoid the prospect of landlords receiving multiple rebates.
“The rebate is welcome but we need to know more from Whitehall about what they are doing to support local councils to deliver this policy and provide firm assurances that councils will not be hit by further costs from administering the rebates.”
Eager to condemn the government’s rebates, Generation Rent, even before councils hand out the cash, has jumped onto Twitter complaining that: “The £150 Council Tax rebate will be gobbled up within months.”
Richard Merrick of PIMS, says:” Shouldn’t the rebate be handed back to landlords having to cope with rental arrears either from Covid related problems or by tenants’ wilful actions, as some form of acknowledgement from the government of this major problem?”
News Archive »