A SHORTFALL in Waverley's budget means that council tenants could face a whopping 12 per cent increase in their rents to help balance the books.

Just two weeks away from Waverley Borough Council's pre-budget executive meeting, leader of the council David Harmer asked the director of finance, Paul Wenham, to go back to the drawing board and try and find a way of reducing the proposed rent increases.

Mr Harmer said: "Having had several informal conversations with members about a possible increase of the rents by 12 per cent, I would like to ask the director of finance to bring the increase down to 10 per cent and to present us with a list of options that would help us to achieve this."

But Liberal Democrat councillor for Farnham, Dr Rosemary Thomas, said she hoped it would be possible to bring the figure down even lower.

"I would regard a 12 per cent increase as totally unacceptable, and I would hope that the increase could be taken down to below 10 per cent"

The average weekly rent of a council property in Waverley is £61.00 per week, this would rise to just over £67 if the 12 per cent increase was implemented.

The increases which would be almost four times the current rate of inflation, follow last year's rent rises of 3.5 per cent.

After the meeting Paul Wenham told the Herald that Waverley officers were investigating how to reduce the rent increases and were looking into various ways of generating revenue and reducing expenditure for this to be possible.

Officers will present the various options to members of the executive committee before its next meeting on February 5.

The final decision on the Waverley budget will be made at a meeting on February 13.