Date: 19/06/2009
Private sector tenants claiming Housing Benefit in Glossop and Hadfield should be better off next time their payments are reviewed, thanks to High Peak Borough Council and supporters.
The Rent Service, a Government agency, has met the council and others halfway by scrapping plans to include the two High Peak towns in a North East Greater Manchester Broad Rental Market Area (BRMA) along with Oldham and Rochdale.
The two Greater Manchester towns will now get their own BRMA while, from August, Glossop and Hadfield will come under a Tameside and Glossop BRMA dominated by Tameside towns.
The Rent Service rethink follows a concerted campaign and public meetings organised by the council, High Peak Citizens' Advice Bureau (CAB) and others. The partial U-turn heeds the council's concerns that Glossop and Hadfield had little affinity with Oldham and Rochdale. However, the review stops short of the council's call for the two High Peak towns to be included in a new Glossopdale BRMA or the South Manchester BRMA centred on Stockport.
The removal of Glossop and Hadfield from North East Greater Manchester is better news for Glossopdale Housing Benefit claimants, who had found themselves in a BRMA where the cost of private renting was lower than in Glossopdale itself. This meant that most Glossopdale claimants were receiving benefit that was lower than their rent.
In fact, the grouping of Glossopdale with Oldham and Rochdale had led to cuts of up to £100 per month in Housing Benefit payments for some of the poorest tenants.
Cllr Andrew Bingham, executive councillor for social and community development, gave a guarded welcome to the creation of the Tameside and Glossop BRMA but was disappointed that the Rent Service did not seem to have considered seriously the council's case for including Glossopdale in South Manchester on the grounds that it had more affinity with Stockport than Tameside.
And High Peak CAB has reiterated its call for a study to "ascertain whether Glossop would be better grouped in a BRMA containing Stockport".
Glossop Housing Benefit claimants who have experienced a cut in benefit may not notice an immediate increase in help with their rent costs. This will only happen when their payments are reviewed. This happens on a 52-week cycle, so some claimants may have to wait for up to a year to benefit from the Rent Office decision.
The law requires a BRMA to contain enough housing types - including privately rented - to ensure that a prescribed formula called the Local Housing Allowance and the Local Reference Rent is representative of the rent that a landlord might reasonably be expected to obtain in the area concerned.
Most of High Peak is in the South Manchester BRMA or its Peak and Dales equivalent.
Tenants who want further advice on this issue can phone High Peak Borough Council on 0845 129 7777 or contact the CAB on 01298 214550.