We believe the timetable for introduction of pay to stay is too
tight and that there is a case for delaying implementation.
We'd like to hear from councils who have concerns about
any difficulties to implement pay to stay by April
2017.
We have consistently argued and continue to believe that the
implementation of mandatory higher rents for tenants whose
household income is determined as "high income", should be
voluntary for councils as it will be for housing associations, and
that councils should retain any additional income generated to
reinvest in new and existing housing.
Minister's confirmed in debate on the Housing and Planning Act
that any rent increases are expected to apply to tenants with
taxable household incomes over £31,000; with a tapered rent
increase of 15p for every £1 earned above the threshold each week.
Although the Act is now in place we're still waiting for the
detailed Regulations, however, civil servants are expecting
councils to implement the scheme from April 2017.
We outlined the
proposed timetable in our bulletin of 27 May. Five weeks later,
councils are still waiting for the details.
John Bibby, Chief Executive and Matthew Warburton, Policy
Adviser met with senior DCLG officials responsible for implementing
pay to stay in June. We believe we've made a strong case for
implementation of pay to stay to be delayed (at a minimum), however
HM Treasury will need convincing.
In response to this, we're looking for evidence from our members
around the difficulties in meeting the April 2017 implementation
date. This could include implementing IT changes, recruiting staff,
collecting income data from tenants and members of their household,
assessing market rents and calculating tapers.
John Bibby is due to meet DCLG officials again in September and
if your authority shares these concerns, we'd be interested to hear
from you.
Please email: john.bibby@arch-housing.org.uk.