星空传媒

The changes 鈥� which could have meant rent increases of 20% for some tenants in order to get council and registered social landlord rents in line with each other by 2012 鈥� will now take place in 2006/7.

In a review this summer, the ODPM had indicated that the changes would be implemented from 2005/6.

It is understood tenants鈥� groups were unhappy with the proposals and did not think they had been adequately consulted.

The changes included:

• allowing higher rents to be charged on large houses
• swapping councils onto the measure used to calculate RSL rent rises
• removing the limit on rent cuts.

The ODPM said it had held off making the changes to allow for extra discussion.

Phil Morgan, chief executive of the Tenant Participation Advisory Service, said: 鈥淲hat concerned me was that the government could rush into this, take the wrong decision and then need another review to sort it out in a few years. We think the extra time is right.鈥�

What concerned me was that government could rush into
this and take the wrong decision

Phil Morgan, TPAS

The Association of London Government also backed a delay.

But the Charted Institute of Housing said the delay meant rent increases would be concentrated into a shorter period so would need to be higher each year.

Sam Lister, policy officer at the CIH, said: 鈥淭he problem with the delay is we either have to extend the time period to meet the target or we end up with bigger rent increases at a later date.鈥�

The National Housing Federation condemned the U-turn as political manoeuvring to avoid rent rises close to a general election, but the ODPM denied the change was politically motivated.

Jim Coulter, chief executive of the NHF, said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 pathetic. We cannot see why it should take another year to understand issues that the review has already taken a year to understand. It鈥檚 clearly a political decision to avoid rent increases before the election.鈥�