Crawley Borough Council is fighting to end "an unfair system" of redistributing council house rents across the country.
The council has joined the fight against the scheme which will see it give £13.2 million of tenants' rent money back to the government this year [2008/09].
The government runs a national system for housing based on redistributing money received in rent. It pays housing subsidy to those councils which the government considers to have the greatest need. It then compels other councils, like Crawley, with less perceived 'need' to pay subsidy back to the government.
This 'pool' of money is currently in surplus, with council housing rent payers contributing to the overall surplus of nearly £200 million which goes to the Treasury. This sum will rise to £300 million by 2010/11.
Councillor Jennifer Millar-Smith, Crawley Borough Council's Cabinet member for housing services, said: "The system is simply unfair. It means that not only are tenants in one part of the country subsidising tenants in another part, but rent payers are paying an extra tax to government. At the moment tenants have no say where the subsidy goes."
Crawley Borough Council rents nearly 8,300 homes to tenants. Many were built in the 1950s and 1960s and are in need of significant investment to bring them up to good, modern standards.
Cllr Millar-Smith added: "We have put in place a £60.2 million investment programme for our housing stock. But given its age, we will need to continue to invest heavily in order to provide acceptable levels of housing.
"The current system should be scrapped. Local rents could, and should, be spent locally by the council on improving the condition of housing and enabling future affordable housing and not paid to the government. Decisions about where money is spent should be made at a local level.
"We need to put pressure on the government. I have already written to the Housing minister and I am launching a petition with the Independent Tenants' Association and the Crawley Homes Forum. We need as many tenants as possible to sign up to it.
"I have also been in contact with other local authorities in the region who are in a similar position to us so that we can join forces and help make our tenants' voices heard."
The petition can be signed at the Town Hall.
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