ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the related questions of the level, trend and structure of council tenants’ rents and state subsidies. Since 1935 each local housing authority has been required to keep in a standard format a single account for the revenue expenditure and income associated with all of the houses it rents out, including both purpose-built and acquired dwellings as well as slums ‘temporarily’ patched prior to demolition. The repairs item is self-explanatory as is the residual item. Other expenditure includes debt management expenses, revenue contributions to capital outlay and a proportion of salaries. The dominant trend since World War II has been for both unit money costs and interest rates to rise. Similarly, rates of subsidy have changed markedly over the last thirty years. The attempt to relate the rent paid to the municipality to the income of the household making the payment by means of a rent rebate or a differential rent has a long history.
