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Why improve homes
people can’t afford?
FOR years under the last government, a big chunk of money totalling millions, collected by the local council from its rent payers, who live in council housing, was taken off the housing department and spent in other parts of the country.
Now I have read that this has stopped and all money collected from council tenants can be spent on housing repairs which, at a time when everyone is finding it hard, can only be a good thing.
But to my despair, I read in the Derbyshire Times, that the council is putting the rents up by a massive 8.83%, which would mean that at a time when poor families are finding it hard to cope, their disposable income has gone down by £300 per year.
It seems to me that the new administrations are bent on making life harder for some families who are already struggling to make ends meet.
These houses are supposed to be for the not so well off - but instead of using some of these extra millions the council now has to cushion the blow at a difficult time and keep rents low, they punish the local tenants even more by raising them.
Most council houses are up to decent housing standard in Chesterfield. Yes, it would be nice to have a new kitchen and bathroom in the houses , but it’s no good if you cannot afford to live in them, is it?
Some of this extra cash councils now have should be used to freeze rents at a time of recession and help keep the tenants they already have in a home.
This, which comes along with the council tax increase when others are using the government money to cap council tax, sounds to me like Chesterfield Borough Council wants its cake and to eat it with a cherry on top.
PAUL MANN
Inkersall
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Weather for Chesterfield
Thursday 24 May 2012
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Temperature: 12 C to 24 C
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Wind direction: North east
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