A SHOCK announcement that nearly half of Waverley's housing stock has been classed as "non-decent" was made minutes after tenants were warned they may face rent increases.

Waverley's portfolio holder for housing, Dr Genny Lane, revealed the disturbing statistic at Tuesday night's meeting of the council's executive.

"It is to be noted that 49.2 per cent of the council's housing stock was classed as non-decent at the start of April 2002. This means a total of 2,800 homes were in this category," said Dr Lane.

Her comments came after the committee agreed to recommend a rent increase of 5.5 per cent for tenants across the borough - proposed to come into force in April.

A final decision on the rent increase will be made by the full council at its next meeting on Tuesday.

Eager to dampen concerns about the housing stock's condition, leader of the council David Harmer dismissed the term "non-decent" as a government technicality.

"A number of standards have been set down by the government to meet targets for better homes.

"Our total number of non-decent homes is excessive and we need to take serious steps to drag this total down," Mr Harmer said.

Mr Harmer went on to warn the meeting of a potential crisis which could hit tenants hard.

He said that if proposed government legislation is given the go-ahead, the money for housing repairs could be dramatically cut.

The money generated from the sale of council houses (capital receipts), Mr Harmer explained, is currently used to pay for repair of Waverley's housing stock.

However, it was recently proposed by the government that capital receipts from "affluent" councils should be redirected to the north of the country.

"The government is proposing to take away the capital we use on housing repairs.

"I think this is outrageous and have already taken the matter up at Westminster along with members of other councils from the south of England," said Mr Harmer.

Waverley's executive councillors agreed to note the statistic but no further action was set down at the meeting.

After the meeting, a Waverley spokesman explained that the council's officers had used the governments standards to assess the housing stock.

Criteria such as the age of the property and the need for repairs, were among the considerations taken into account by officers.

"The criteria for a home to be classed as non-decent can be quite complicated.

"If a property is non-decent it does not necessarily mean that it is uninhabitable," the spokesman said.

"We currently have a programme in place to work on our non-decent properties," she added.