Mark Todd, MP for South Derbyshire

Mark has called on the district council to abandon any sale of its council housing stock after the Government announced new plans.
 
This week the Government revealed its proposals to tackle housing finance. These included allowing councils to keep all their rental income and gain the freedom to manage their housing to meet local need.
 
Mark has been campaigning for South Derbyshire District Council to be given the right to keep more of its council house rent income. He met with the then housing minister - Margaret Beckett - earlier this year to press this case. He was accompanied by Kevin Richards, leader of the council's opposition Labour group. The pair also wanted the authority to secure funding to expand its 3,100-strong council house stock.
 
This meeting was also part of a Labour campaign to avert a threatened sell-off of the district’s council homes by the ruling Tory group.
 
The council has spent more than £50,000 on consulting tenants about a possible stock transfer. This is despite previous council consultations showing the vast majority of tenants wish to remain in local authority hands.
 
One of the council's justifications for pressing ahead with the idea of stock transfer was the fact that the authority has to give an estimated 30 per cent of its net rental income from council houses to the Government.
 
The charge, which last year amounted to £2.83 million, is channelled into a fund designed to help subsidise authorities with sub-standard council housing stock.
 
But these new proposals would address this problem. There would be a one-off redistribution of housing debt to reflect the variable state of housing stock across the country.
 
Mark said: "One of the council's core concerns is that the government is taking a large and potentially increasing share of the rent income. The principle of transfer of resources between councils was agreed under the last government. This proposal would mean that the council would have predictability about both their income and a chunk of their costs. They will keep all their rent. While costs will increase, because of the addition of extra debt, this is a one-off addition which will reduce over time.
 
"The ability to provide badly needed additional social housing will be increased. So I’ll be calling on the council to stop their costly exercise, contribute to the consultation on these new plans and argue for how they could use more freedom to provide new local homes. "