Dudley Council leaders accused of 'railroading rent hike plans' behind closed doors

The ring-fenced Housing Revenue Account (HRA), which includes a proposed rent hike of 4.8 percent for council tenants, will be discussed at an informal meeting via Microsoft Teams on Tuesday February 10, the day before a cabinet meeting which will vote to approve housing finance for the next financial year.

The informal scrutiny meeting was called after the housing budget was withdrawn from the last full council meeting, following advice from the authority’s chief lawyer that rent rises should be set by cabinet.

Dudley Labour opposition’s deputy leader, Cllr Shaukat Ali, said: “The word that comes to mind is railroading because of shortness of time.

“They should have seen this before they pulled the report from council, they should have thought about this a long time ago.”

Councillor Ali’s complaints do not carry much weight with the Conservative-run borough’s leader, Cllr Patrick Harley, who says the opposition has already had plenty of chances to suggest changes and has not put forward any other options.

Cllr Harley said: “There have been two scrutiny meetings of the housing committee. This is a decision for cabinet and not full council.

“However, to be transparent and give what is an awful and pathetic opposition the third opportunity to scrutinise, we have asked the chair to convene yet another meeting for any recommendations to come forward.”

The decision on housing finance has to be made before the full council sets the rest of the authority’s budget at the end of February.

Usually members of the public are entitled to attend scrutiny meetings, which are publicised on the council’s website, however at the time of writing the informal meeting was not listed.

Cllr Ali said: “It is kind of behind closed doors which is not good for transparency or good governance.

“The HRA budget is as significant as setting the council’s main budget and should be afforded the same status and scrutiny.

“We were working on some alternatives before the meeting where the report was pulled but we weren’t in a position where the relevant information had been shared for us to formulate something.”

Cllr Harley said: “It’s not behind closed doors. Time is of the essence, so Teams is the best option.

“The process is the same as always; only those who are on the committee ask questions. Nothing has changed.

“It’s not in private as any member can attend if they wish. All they have to do is request a Teams link.”

Cllr Harley added any recommendations proposed by the committee at the informal meeting would be considered by the council’s cabinet.