rent rise

[robert sandison]

I see the council house sorry social house rents are going up by £8.15 on average which means for some tenants it will be a lot more of course you only pay this increase if you work.If you are on benefits its payed for you so much for the governments work will always pay slogan

[minara]

I always thought the rents were to low.

[Colin]

[MJ]

was amazed by how cheap social housing rents were south compared to up here, highest council rent in Scotland apparently.

[mikeyboy]

Edited as should have checked my figures.
I still think the housing debt should have been paid off from reserve funds when times were good. As it is now adding to the pain when times are bad.

[jambo6]

[mikeyboy]

Is it £8.15 a week or per month?

[Muppet]

[robert sandison]

It could backfire as more people will be rushing to buy there council sorry social house as they find a mortgage is cheaper than the rent .That will mean even higher rents for the remaining tenants

[MJ]

[MuckleJoannie]

I seem to recall that that there was an opportunity to write off the housing debt a few years ago. It involved the the housing stock being transferred to a new housing association but it was rejected in a vote by council house tenants.
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Facts are chiels that winna ding, An' downa be disputed - Rabbie Burns

[Ghostrider]

^ Was there not some clause in the deal that the Government would only sanction the transfer of the stock if the proposed new association "bought" them, ie. there was a capital sum the association would become liable for. And the Government couldn't be haggled down to a sum those involved with it on the proposed assocation side felt was "reasonable" and/or made it an attractive and likely realistically viable arrangement. Or did they get past that hurdle before the whole idea was abandoned for some other reason?

[engineer21]

i thought you couldnt by your council house anymore?? and if you still can its unbeliveble!
the differnce in quailty of council housing in shetland vs many other places is amazing! take a tower block in glasgow vs sandvein.......i know which id rather have regardless of if i had to pay a bit more for it

i dunno should someone at the sic not of paid of a 40millon debt when our reserves were up at 350millon?? might have made good business sense.....then again hindsight! oh yeah and we have no business folk at the sic

[MuckleJoannie]

It would be totally illegal for the SIC to use its own funds to pay off the housing debt. The Housing account is completely ringfenced and can only use the money raised from rents to pay off the debt.

The curious thing about this is that the Housing debt comprises SIC money from other funds invested in the Housing Account.
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Facts are chiels that winna ding, An' downa be disputed - Rabbie Burns

[Shoogler]

^^^
whart do you mean when you say'other funds invested in the housing account'? Are you talking about Reserve funds or Disturbance payments form when they existed?

[Ghostrider]

[MuckleJoannie]

To quote from this document

http://www.scottish.parliament.....120619.pdf

[Spinner72]

^^ That actually makes sense. Sadly.

Yet one more case of the ease of "dipping in the kitty" coming back to bite the council where it hurts.

Plenty of room for cynicism to be sure, however whilst the govt may take the position that Shetland used its own money for various things so its "nothing to do with them", there is the undoubted fact that by doing so it saved the govt a small fortune in performing statutory duties.

Maybe its time "we" got what we are due....
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Never forget you are unique, just like everyone else..

[Siccar]

Imagine gettin quality housing waaaay below rates o da private sector with tradesmen at yir beck and call? There are many in Shetland who think social housing is a right and not a social net.
Hed ta gaff at da boy in Scalloway wi da MOTORHOME ootside his hoose AND da boy wi a good job and da Jaguar car.
Ower a 1000 claim dey need social housing in Shetland.
Mair dan 500 are expectin a free ride.
Try bidin somwhaur else in dis country dan you micht understand hardship.
(Na you likly winna)
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"Wherever they burn books, eventually they will burn people too" Heinrich Heine
Hard of thinking? Blame the migrants!
I'm not sure I want popular opinion on my side.I've noticed that those with the most opinions often have the fewest facts

[BigMouth]

[robert sandison]

As a matter of interest what happened to all the money the SIC got from selling all those council houses?.They certainly did not spend it building any new ones

[Kavi Ugl]

[Ghostrider]

[MuckleJoannie]

[robert sandison]

If people are unhappy about the way housing system works they should stop voting for the three main political parties or should that be the four main parties in scotland because you couldnt get a cigarette paper between their housing policy .New Labour for example simply carried on Thatchers policy another thing is the new homeless bill passed almost unanimously in the scottish parliament which promised to ''end homelessness in scotland '' will in effect mean only people classed as homeless will have access to social housing .Like i said if you dont like it then do not vote for any of the four m ain parties .The present set up is simply unfair in that it rewards the bad and feckless and downright criminal behavior with a nice new house while people who work and pay taxes get told to get lost