Changes possible to rental fixing

Press, 23 September 1987, Page 6

Changes possible to rental fixing

PA Wellington The Minister of Housing, Ms Helen Clark, has suggested that the controversial State house rentalfixing formula could be modified. The new formula aims to set market rentals for State housing, and to allow lower, income-related rentals in cases where tenants cannot afford the market rental. Porirua tenants who have begun a rent strike in protest at rentals which have doubled and even trebled under the new policy met Ms Clark recently. After the meeting, Ms Clark said one question she would look at was whether • the formula ought to be adjusted not only by income but by the number of dependants. “That could be worth taking into account to assist larger families," she

said. Ms Clark also considered the possibility that some state house tenants might be allowed lower rentals than under the present formula. “I don’t shrink away from the principle that at some point people should be paying market rents. The question is, at what point do you reach that?” The rent strikers said that old age beneficiaries were being unfairly penalised by the new, increased rentals. But she said she' did not believe the new formula was impacting unfairly on older people. .' “I have had quite a lot of contact with elderly people in my own electorate, many of whom are in Housing Corporation or pensioner fiats, and paying that, level of rents,” she said. “There may be a .

more general question to address about the level of income for the single pensioner, but I do not think they have been unduly « harshly affected by the new formula.” State housing tenants , £ have called for a return A to the old system of fixing their rentals, but Ms Clark ruled out that possibility. “The principle has been ? established that at some point a market rent will apply,” she said. When the circumstances of State house tenants improved markedly, tbey could not g expect to enjoy a subsidised rent from the community. a “To keep paying them ; that subsidised rent is unfair to the people out in the community on much smaller incomes who are trying to cope with privatei sector rent”