COUNCIL tenants struggling to make ends meet in the cost of living crisis are facing a crippling seven per cent rent rise, rubber-stamped by councillors this week.

The Labour-run city council has chosen the maximum possible increase allowed by the government as it looks to raise funds for an eye-popping £800million, five-year, programme of home-buying and building.

On top of the seven per cent rent increase, residents are due to be charged an extra 10 per cent to rent garages and sheds on council estates.

The hike is being blamed on “significant financial challenges” caused in part by rising costs in the construction industry and the government’s failure to properly fund the local authority.

Cabinet member for finance and council reform Cllr David Boothroyd said: “We are proposing to increase the rent to maintain services. We recognise the impact on tenants in the cost of living crisis. Balancing the HRA [housing revenue account] revenue budget, while ensuring it provides a good level of funding for the work that is chargeable, has been one of the tougher parts of this year’s budget round.

“A major problem is two factors combining: the first is a major inflationary increase in cost of construction and repairs far exceeding the rate of inflation. The second is that the largest single source of income for the HRA is rents, and the government limited rent rises to the below-inflation seven per cent and failed to make up the gap.”

A £1million pot has been set up to help struggling residents, Cllr Boothroyd said.

The rises were rubber-stamped at Westminster City Council’s cabinet meeting, held in Lisson Grove for the first time, on Monday.

The meeting heard that damp and mould surveys would be doubled using extra money in the HRA and also more housing officers would be hired.

The Social Housing Action Campaign is calling on the government to introduce a “rent freeze” as well as “capping service charges” for housing association tenants.

“We want tenants and residents to pledge that they won’t pay any rises,” a spokesman for the group added.

The meeting also heard that the HRA will have to borrow £479million to carry out its plans to buy up dozens of homes to use as temporary accommodation.

Meanwhile the council is freezing the main rate of council tax for the 2023/2024 year as part of its “Fairer Westminster” policy.

The average council tax payment in Westminster works out at £1,044.16 per household, in comparison.

Nearby Hammersmith and Fulham council, which currently has the third lowest average council tax bill in the country, is increasing the charge by 4.99 per cent, meaning an average bill of £1,306 (up £78).