A senior Labour MP has written to the Housing Secretary Michael Gove seeking reassurances that landlords will not keep council tax rebates being offered in a once-only giveaway by the government.

About 20m households in council tax bands A to D – including an estimated 95 per cent of rented properties – will receive £150 rebates under the government’s £3 billion council tax scheme.

However, some tenants in HMOs make a once-a-month all-inclusive payment to their landlords covering – amongst other things – council tax.

So Clive Betts MP, who chairs the all-party Levelling Up select committee, want to know how those tenants will receive their £150 rebates. 

In a letter to Gove, Betts says: “Where households rent their property but the landlord pays the council tax and then charges it to the household, will the landlord receive the rebate? If so, will such households receive their rebate through the discretionary fund.”

And he continues: “Payments must go to tenants and we need to avoid the prospect of landlords receiving multiple rebates. 

“The rebate is welcome but we need to know more from Whitehall about what they are doing to support local councils to deliver this policy and provide firm assurances that councils will not be hit by further costs from administering the rebates.”

Even before local authorities have administered the £150 rebate on behalf of the government, activist group Generation Rent has complained on Twitter that “The £150 Council Tax rebate will be gobbled up within months.”