Published: 26 January 2012
by RICHARD OSLEY

COUNCIL tenants are going door to door across Camden’s estates to drum up support for a petition opposing rent hikes.

Tenants’ leaders do not believe plans ratified last week to raise rent by 8.1 per cent – more than double the rate of inflation – have sunk in with most residents and that many are in for a shock when bills arrive.

They want councillors to “show more fight” and work with tenants on a campaign against the rise, beefed up by joining with like-minded local authorities in London and elsewhere in the country.

Tenants’ representatives appeared before the Labour cabinet of senior councillors last Wednesday and then met again on Monday night to discuss extending the campaign further.

With service charges due to rise, tenants face paying an extra £10 a week each.

Fran Heron, chairwoman of Camden Town District Management Committee, told the cabinet that residents were “incensed that no other options have been provided and that we were presented with a take-it-or-leave-it scenario.

We also question the need to adhere to the government’s set formula.”

She said that tenants were aware that Camden was receiving less money from government and that “the council is jammed between a rock and a hard place”.

But Ms Heron told the meeting: “We have major concerns about the impact the proposed rise in rent and heating charge increases will have on the most financially vulnerable tenants.”

She warned that people could fall into a “poverty trap”, adding: “Public sector workers facing wage freezes face the full 8.1 per cent hike in rents.

Those in low-paid employment are unlikely to have had any rise in wages and will face the full force of the increase from their meagre disposable income.”

Camden is divided into five housing districts. Tenants in four of them have voted to oppose the increases. Holborn tenants’ leaders have accepted the rise.

At the Camden Town headquarters of Camden Federation of Tenants’ and Residents’ Associations (CFTRA) on Monday night, tenants’ reps agreed to take a petition around the estates.

It calls on the council to stand shoulder to shoulder with tenants by taking deputations to London Mayor Boris Johnson and the government.

Petra Dando, from Camden Association of Street Properties, told Monday’s meeting that councillors had to take a stronger line with the government.
“The tea and sympathy approach is not good enough,” she said.

One of the underlying fears is that rents will not only go up this year but inch closer to market rents in the next few years, making Camden unaffordable to current council tenants.

The front-page headline of the current edition of CFTRA’s newspaper, the Camden Tenant, defiantly reads: “No near- market council rents”.

Lib Dem group leader Councillor Keith Moffitt has argued that Camden is not as strait-jacketed by government policy as it claims, while Green Party councillor Maya De Souza this week called for a rent cap.

Labour councillors are acutely aware that a tenants’ campaign could prove damaging, especially if there is a revolt on the major estates.

They are talking privately of getting to a stage where they can set a three-year rent plan, which would reassure tenants they would not be hit with big hikes in the coming years.

Sources blamed government uncertainty over funding for this not having been done already.

Labour housing chief Councillor Julian Fulbrook said: “It’s a shame that the government is launching the new era of ‘self- financing’ by effectively forcing the council to raise rents to balance the housing accounts.

This increase is significantly higher than the government’s 5.2 per cent increase in the state pension and is not helpful for people already struggling to pay higher energy and household bills.”

He added: “The high rent increase is in stark contrast to the government’s approach elsewhere, where they have found extra resources to limit council tax increases.”

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