Thousands of council house tenants across the Borough of Hounslow face an inflation-busting rent increase of 6.95 per cent - because ministers refuse to let housing chiefs set a lower rate.
Hounslow Homes, which manages social housing across the borough, and council leaders both want to give hard-up residents a break as we enter what could be a long, deep recession.
They have written to housing minister Margaret Beckett requesting permission to impose a lower rise for the coming financial year.
In his letter, Cllr Phil Andrews, lead member for housing, says the huge rise will encourage more people to claim benefits, costing the Government more in the long term.
"At a time of other financial difficulties, it is not right to be adding to the financial burdens of council tenants by making a disproportionate rent increase," he writes. "We would like to set a lower rent increase in order to relieve the financial pressures on tenants, and in order not to discourage them from taking up paid employment where they can."
Alf Chandler, chairman of Hounslow Homes' tenant board, said the proposed increase would make life very difficult for hundreds of residents and there was a 'rising tide of anger and protest'.
The proposed increase, which will affect tenants nationally, was calculated using a complicated formula called 'rent restructuring', controversially introduced in 2002.
It is based on September's Retail Price Index (RPI) of five per cent, a figure which is expected to drop below one per cent for December due to tumbling food and energy prices.
However, a spokeswoman for the Department of Communities and Local Government, which sets the rates, said allowing some councils to set lower rents would unfairly affect tenants in other parts of the country because the money raised goes into a central pot.
"This system offers a very good deal for those in social housing with many Local Authority rents remaining below 50 per cent of those in the private rented sector, ensuring that the most vulnerable are protected," she added. "Our proposals will continue to protect local authority tenants so that increases will amount to no more than an estimated average of £3.95 per week, though for over 60 per cent of tenants these increases will be covered by housing benefit."
