星空传媒

You are probably thinking of the Tenants' Incentive Scheme, which used to offer payments to help tenants move to their own property, but this is now defunct.

It has been replaced by a scheme called Homebuy, which offers loans of 25% of the value of the property being bought. When the house is sold, or earlier, you must then pay back 25% of the current value of the home.

There is also a cash incentive scheme that works by paying a grant to a tenant to help them buy a property in the private sector, but it is up to each local authority to decide whether to run such a scheme and tenants have no mandatory right to a grant.

Jane Loftus, Information team leader for TPAS, and chair of Family Housing Association

Supporting people and fair rent
What are the implications of Supporting People for fair rent registrations? Do we submit the support charges for scheme manager costs (as we did in the past because as service charge they formed part of the rent) or since they are now no longer classed as rent in any sense, do we exclude them? In short, is the fair rent officer allowed to make a judgement on support charges of the local authority?

There is a lot of confusion over this issue.

It depends on whether or not support is being provided as part of the tenancy.

If, as per the National Housing Federation's model tenancies, support is not provided as part of the tenancy but is provided through a separate support agreement, there is no need at all to declare the support charges as part of the rent registration.

But if support is contained within the tenancy, this question hangs on whether or not the provision of support services are seen as a service within the meaning of the 1977 Rent Act.

Official guidance suggests that support should not be considered as a service within the terms of that law (see the Department for Work and Pensions' Housing Benefit Circular A47/99, clauses 30 to 39, which is available at www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/dss/1999/ suppeop/pdfs/guidance.pdf).

However, this view remains untested in court.

Most rent officers accept the Department for Work and Pensions' view, but we have come across instances where they have not been so accommodating. The NHF sees this as another reason why providers may want to split the accountabilities of landlord and support provider because it would avoid these potential confusions.

Nick Sweet, NHF national coordinator for Supporting People

The fair rent officer is not allowed to make a judgement on support charges of the local authority.

Several circulars issued by the Department for Work and Pensions (in particular circular HB/CTB A47/99) make clear that in all cases where rents need to be referred to the rent officer, the rent referred should be net of all support charges.

This is because the purpose of Supporting People is to differentiate between charges that relate to the property (rent and service charges), and charges that relate to the person (support charges).

Rosemary Hart, partner and housing specialist, Trowers & Hamlins