Jan 14 - Government Says 80% Of Rent Arrears Were Inherited From GSD Administration
The Government has said that the Opposition do themselves no favours by highlighting the position of arrears of housing rent. A spokesperson said: “They have the cheek to complain that these stand at £4.9 million when no less than £4 million of that sum was actually inherited from them during their time in office!”
The reality, says No.6, is that the existing position on rent arrears is a reflection of the “failure” of the previous GSD administration to come to grips with the problem. In many respects, argue the Government, the GSD made it even worse, reminding the public that they allocated flats in Mid Harbours, for example, to tenants who already owed considerable sums in rent arrears without ensuring that these were paid. The end result, says the Government, being that some tenants now owe rent both for their previous flat and for the existing new one.
A No.6 statement says that it is the “height of political hypocrisy” for the Opposition to claim that a 20% increase in rent arrears over the last two years "is very worrying". In the first two years of the GSD administration rent arrears shot up by 60%, which is three times as much, according to the Government adding that “They must presumably have been three times more worried then.”
The Government statement provides the following breakdown: The arrears position in March 1996, the year in which the GSD were first elected was £655,031. This had increased to £872,413 by March 1997 and to £1,105,031 by March 1998. This represented a year on year increase of 33.1% and 26.7% respectively. Indeed, it was under their watch that rent arrears increased steadily beyond the £1 million mark, reaching the £2 million by March 2002, and the £3 million by March 2005.
The Government insists that this deterioration in the housing rent arrears position was highlighted by the Principal Auditor to the GSD Government time and again.
A spokesperson concludes: “It is obvious that the Opposition, in their eagerness to hit out at the Government on every conceivable issue, have conveniently forgotten to look at their own poor track record on rent arrears when they were in office, which increased by about 600% during the period.
“This shows that nothing they say can be taken seriously because, as with so many other issues that they now criticise, they failed dismally to come to grips with the matter over nearly sixteen years. Yet another case of do as I say and not as I did!”
