No ‘Pay to Stay’ in Brighton & Hove

Following a government change, Brighton & Hove City Council is assuring its tenants there are no plans to introduce the ‘Pay to Stay’ policy in the city.

The original government ruling in May planned to introduce rent increases for council tenants with incomes of over £31,000 a year from April 2017. In November, the government announced it was making Pay to Stay voluntary for local authorities, and the council has declared it won’t be introducing the policy at present.

Councillor Anne Meadows, Chair of the Housing & New Homes Committee, said:

“We have concerns that Pay to Stay would have a negative impact on the finances of many of our tenants and welcome the decision to put introducing it into local hands.

“Making the change would involve a huge amount of work and we do not see that it would bring many benefits to the city’s current housing situation.

“Therefore, we have no plans to pursue the policy at present, and tenants can assume that our rent payment structures will remain as they are for the foreseeable future.”

In Brighton & Hove, the government policy would have seen increases of 15p a year for every pound a household earned over £31,000, up to a maximum set at local market rates.