IT'S pantomime season again and Paul Bacon is casting around for his villain (December 19). So, Paul, a few facts. Council tenant rents pay for the maintenance and management costs of their homes. The budget is called the Housing Revenue Account, and it has to be self-funding and balance each year. No council tax is used to support the service.
Council tenants pay council tax too, along with the rest of York's householders, in order to provide funding for facilities such as elderly persons homes, schools, and so forth.
The people who lose out from council tenants not paying their rent are council tenants themselves, who have to forego funds which would otherwise be used to improve and modernise more homes.
The real losers, however, are the 78 tenants who have been evicted for non-payment of rent in the last 18 months.
Councillor Viv Kind,
Executive Member for Housing,
Guildhall, York.
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