Housing Minister Margaret Beckett has today announced new support to help councils cut their planned rent increases for tenants in the current economic climate.

The average guideline rent increase for 2009/10 will be halved from 6.2 per cent to 3.1 per cent for local authority tenants, to encourage councils to reduce the amount tenants would have to pay for the coming year.

The Minister announced that the Government would make funding available to support local authorities to make the changes, and revise their rents for 2009/10 accordingly.