Local authorities are responsible, as an integral part of their housing management functions, for determining the rents of their dwellings under the differential rents scheme and the income to be assessed for this purpose. In these circumstances, the rents payable by the categories of person mentioned in the question vary as between authorities. I am satisfied that local authorities have discretion to deal with hardship cases, poverty traps and any other anomalies that arise in an individual case.
Achieving equalisation between the level of rent contribution payable by tenants under the supplementary welfare allowance, SWA, rent supplementation scheme and local authority differential rents schemes would not be possible without a fundamental departure from the devolved nature of the local authority schemes. In any event, the conditions of tenants under the respective schemes is not identical. Local authority tenants enjoy security of tenure, high standards of construction, entitlement to purchase under the tenant purchase scheme and eligibility for other schemes such as shared ownership, etc. Moreover, the differential nature of local authority rent schemes ensures that only a portion of income increases is payable in rent while under the rent supplementation scheme, recipients are required to contribute to their rent any additional means that they have over and above the appropriate basic SWA rate. I have, therefore, no proposals to change the existing arrangements, which are in keeping with Government policy of appropriate devolution of local functions to local authorities.
