March 1, 2001 16:45: CAMPAIGNERS shivered in the snow outside the district council offices in High Wycombe to protest about council rent rises.

The protesters, all council tenants, said they could not afford the 7.8 per cent increase (an average of £4.40 week) from April, and argued that even more money would have to go on housing benefit.

The ruling Conservative group on Wycombe District Council said the increase was needed to help pay for the first year of a five-year programme to tackle a £30 million backlog of major improvements and repairs in the 8,000 homes.

Riasat Hussain, one of the tenant campaigners from pressure group Hands off our Homes, said on Monday that people on low incomes or who were unemployed could not afford the increase.

Another, Eamonn Butler, said the council should be pressing the Government to allow it to spend the money raised from the sale of council houses.

He said that cash could be used to keep rents down.

Inside the chamber, Labour councillor Clare Martens called for the rent rise to be kept to 3.8 per cent, or £2.08 a week, and for up to £500,000 to come out of balances.

Tory council leader-elect Roger Colomb said that if the transfer of council homes to a social landlord (LSVT) had been agreed by the tenants, the rent increase would have been kept to 3.5 per cent.

He blamed the Labour group for failing to support LSVT when the idea was supported by their own Government.

He said: "Now we are trying to pick up the pieces."

The Government has told the district council it must spend at least £4.22 million on major repairs in the next financial year, but it is only giving it £3.3 million.

In fact, the repairs programme is about £8 million, the amount needed to compete the programme over five years.

Cllr Peter Cartwright, chairman of the housing and economic development committee, said £700,00 had to come from tenants

But the protests and an attempt by the opposition members to cut the rise to 3.8 per cent or £2.08 a week and to take up to £500,000 from balances had no effect.

Opposition members say because the proposed rent increase is above Government guidelines, the council will lose £450,000 in housing subsidy as a result, which will go straight to the Treasury.

Cllr Cartwright told the Bucks Free Press there were some important things to be done including kitchens, ceilings, leaking roofs, improvements to service roads and off-street parking, windows, doors and security

He said: "There are some really radical improvements here.

"The tenants' group told us they didn't want half measures."