Council tax to increase by 3 pc as social housing tenants face rent rise

Council tax is set to increase by 3 pc for all residents in Manchester from April when social housing tenants in the city will also be hit by a 4.1 pc rise in rent.

Manchester council's executive endorsed the proposal to increase council tax by 2.99 pc in the next financial year which will be put to a vote in early March.

It follows two council tax hikes which were approved by Greater Manchester's leaders in the last couple of weeks, costing Band D homes a further £22 a year.

READ MORE: Council tax to rise in every borough of Greater Manchester from April 1

Manchester councillors also approved a rent increase for all council-owned properties in the city in line with increases by other social housing providers.

Around 70,000 households will be affected by the rent rise – although some of them will have the increase at least partially covered by housing benefits.

A £200,000 hardship fund has been set up to support vulnerable council housing tenants – although the eligibility criteria has not yet been decided.

It comes as Manchester council prepares to set its budget for the next year.

Council leader Bev Craig said there will be no cuts to the budget during the 12-month period – but there is still a 'huge black hole' in funding for future years.

She said: "Setting budgets in local government is so dependent on what's happened in the last 10 years.

"After the £40m that we had to take from our budget last year, to find ourselves in a position through mitigations and the use of one-off funding, to not be making any cuts in this year's budget, the context of austerity in the last ten years is not just an elephant in the room, but consistently holds back not just our budgets, but budgets across local government more