REID CALLS ON SNP TO STOP £40 A WEEK RENT INCREASE FOLLOWING ACHA BOARD DECISION

Alan Reid, Liberal Democrat MP for Argyll & Bute, called on the Scottish Government and Argyll & Bute Council to step in and stop the rent increase of up to £40 a week faced by tenants of ACHA’s sheltered houses.

ACHA’s Board met on Thursday 13 August and decided to go ahead with their plans to increase the rents of their sheltered housing tenants, in some cases by as much as £40 a week. The ACHA Board decided to phase the rent increases over a three year period. They have increased rents by £10 a week starting from today. A meeting is to take place between ACHA and the Council regarding the Supporting People funding which the Council stopped giving ACHA last year.

Mr Reid said,

“I am very disappointed that the ACHA Board have gone ahead with this rent increase. I hope that, when they meet the Council, the Council will agree to re-instate the Supporting People funding which they stopped last year, so that this rent increase can be reversed.”

“The SNP are in power in both the Scottish Government and Argyll & Bute Council. They are the party with the purse strings. They should restore ACHA’s Supporting People grant and stop the rent increase. When the Council transferred its housing stock to ACHA, they promised tenants a better service, not cuts in the warden service and £40 a week rent rises.

“The Council’s SNP/Independent Administration are now threatening to privatise all their elderly care services. I hope that the reductions in the warden service and the huge rent increases are not a taste of what other elderly people will be faced with if the SNP go ahead with their plans to privatise all the Council’s elderly care services. I have written to the Council asking for assurances that this pattern will not be repeated for other elderly care services should the SNP privatisation plans go ahead.”

NOTE:
The sheltered houses affected are at
Caledonia Court, Ardrishaig
Chalmers Court, Inveraray
Cragroy, Port Riddell, Dunoon
Dunmar Court, Oban
Elder Crescent, Bowmore
Ferfadd Court, Rothesay
Ford Spence Court, Benderloch
MacDougall Place, Bunessan
McCracken Court, Lochgilphead
Wallace Court, Sandbank
Lochgair Place, Tarbert