A London council has written to the Government asking it to use HMRC to pick up the cost of implementing its Pay to Stay policy.
Southwark Council warned the policy will require councils to means test council housing tenants, placing a ‘costly and time consuming’ burden on local authorities.
The council said it had a had a high number of self-employed people in the borough making it practically impossible to determine someone’s annual or weekly income.
The council’s cabinet member for housing, Cllr Stephanie Cryan, said: "I have written to the housing minister to state that this policy is an intrusion on people’s privacy and a bureaucratic nightmare for councils.
‘In many cases, it would be almost impossible to prove people’s income and we feel the Government already has an organised body set up for this very purpose and it should follow its own guidance when it comes to burdening authorities with the extra workload. HMRC already collects this data and should be responsible for supplying the information.’
It also argued the extra costs are in direct contradiction to the Government’s own guidance in the New Burdens Doctrine, which requires Whitehall to justify why new burdens should be placed on local authorities and how they will be funded. Although the doctrine focuses on council tax, Southwark said it should also apply to housing tenants.
The Local Government Association has warned councils will be forced to invest millions in new IT systems and staff in order to implement the policy.
