Redrobbie99 Posted September 27, 2012 Report Share Posted September 27, 2012 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minara Posted September 27, 2012 Report Share Posted September 27, 2012 I always thought the rents were to low. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted September 27, 2012 Report Share Posted September 27, 2012 I always thought the rents were to low. Own(?) your own house do you? How much, as a percentage of monthly income, do you think rent should be? Average take home pay, for some people, is less than £200 and that means that they already have to claim benefits in order to get by. Cranking up rents to more than £300 per month because some councillors (in the past) didn't have the wit to get 'promises' in writing before committing to massive expenditure is hardly a solution that is going to sit well with voters. How about an extra £800,000 savings from the housing department? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJ Posted September 27, 2012 Report Share Posted September 27, 2012 was amazed by how cheap social housing rents were south compared to up here, highest council rent in Scotland apparently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyboy Posted September 27, 2012 Report Share Posted September 27, 2012 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jambo6 Posted September 27, 2012 Report Share Posted September 27, 2012 was amazed by how cheap social housing rents were south compared to up here, highest council rent in Scotland apparently. Not exactly an apples and apples comment, and not true anyway. Average Shetland rent is 61.04p per week which is above the national average of 56.94p but by no means highest (74.87p) When you consider you have zero chance of being put in a tower block or tenement the cost doesnt sound high vs the rest of the country. Its probably lower vs the same type of accomodation but its hard to dig into detailed statistics like that, you can see at a high level from gov figures though that 60% of Scotlands social housing is in flats whereas 15% of Shetlands social housing is in flats. Might not be the best info available but at least I tried rather than just spouting some nonsense under the caveat of "apparently" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyboy Posted September 27, 2012 Report Share Posted September 27, 2012 Is it £8.15 a week or per month? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muppet Posted September 27, 2012 Report Share Posted September 27, 2012 Is it £8.15 a week or per month? The figure quoted in the Shetland Times article is £8.13 per week which would be £35.23 per month. Not peanuts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redrobbie99 Posted September 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2012 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJ Posted September 27, 2012 Report Share Posted September 27, 2012 was amazed by how cheap social housing rents were south compared to up here, highest council rent in Scotland apparently. Not exactly an apples and apples comment, and not true anyway. Average Shetland rent is 61.04p per week which is above the national average of 56.94p but by no means highest (74.87p) When you consider you have zero chance of being put in a tower block or tenement the cost doesnt sound high vs the rest of the country. Its probably lower vs the same type of accomodation but its hard to dig into detailed statistics like that, you can see at a high level from gov figures though that 60% of Scotlands social housing is in flats whereas 15% of Shetlands social housing is in flats. Might not be the best info available but at least I tried rather than just spouting some nonsense under the caveat of "apparently" Apologies second highest in Scotland according to our MSP http://www.shetnews.co.uk/news/5590-move-to-soften-housing-grant-blowNow that we no longer have to worry about losing the housing debt relief can we get a council tax rise? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MuckleJoannie Posted September 27, 2012 Report Share Posted September 27, 2012 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostrider Posted September 27, 2012 Report Share Posted September 27, 2012 ^ 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? How about an extra £800,000 savings from the housing department? I can't imagine this would be too difficult. In my experience simply adopting logical joined up working practices and stopping making Admin work for its own sake would go quite some way towards it. I could detail numerous examples of what I'm talking about, but as some are still current and ongoing "issues" (of multiple months and years, and still counting), now is not a wise time. "Watch this space" as they say though.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
engineer21 Posted September 28, 2012 Report Share Posted September 28, 2012 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MuckleJoannie Posted September 28, 2012 Report Share Posted September 28, 2012 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoogler Posted September 28, 2012 Report Share Posted September 28, 2012 ^^^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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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