Row over ‘pay rent or wait for repair’ rule

Mar 6 2009 by David Bartlett, Liverpool Echo

LIVERPOOL’S largest landlord has warned residents they will be put at the back of the queue for home improvements if they are behind with their rent.

Liverpool Mutual Homes, which took over the running of ex-council housing last year, has 15,000 tenants.

Currently, one-third are in arrears, with more than £3.5m owed in rent.

The housing association has committed to spend £400m to bring thousands of former council homes up to standard over the next five years.

Today, opposition councillors criticised the idea of leaving individual homes out of repair programmes instead of doing whole streets at the same time. But LMH insisted only tenants who made no attempt to pay rent or refused to make an arrangement to reduce their arrears would not get their home upgraded.

Chief executive Steve Coffey said: “We are seeing an increase in the number of people applying for benefits, which may be linked to the recession.

“We offer real support for tenants who are experiencing difficulty in paying their rent, have low incomes or have suffered a loss of income during the recession.

“We help them to identify and apply for benefits they can claim and we can arrange a rent payment programme suiting their ability to pay.

Cllr Steve Radford, who sits on LMH’s north board, said it was deeply alarming so many tenants were in arrears.

But he said: “To be cost effective, improvements should be done a street at a time.

“The upgrade to the homes will still be there when the tenants have gone.”

More than 6,000 LMH homes have already received improvements.


Footnote: If you need help with housing benefits advise please phone the Tuebrook Hope Centre where we have arranged weekly professional advise, Fridays 10 till 2 , phone 228 1137