BOLTON’S 18,000 council house tenants will see their rents rocket over the next four years, the town’s housing chief has warned.

Changes mean a family in an average three-bedroom Bolton At Home property will pay £427 per month in 2014 — £167 more than they currently pay.

The warning has come from Cllr Nick Peel, Executive member for housing at Bolton Council, who says that new Government proposals for housing will also create “ghettos of the unwaged”.

Tenants last night said they would struggle to afford such a huge increase.

One resident, who lives in Oldhams Terrace in Astley Bridge, said: “It is very worrying for a lot of families because £160 is a big increase over four years.

“I thought the whole point of living in social housing was that it was affordable — how can £427 per month be classed as affordable for a family?”

Tenant Brian Derbyshire, aged 68, of Ribchester Grove, said: “It is going to be a struggle, it is at the moment. Increases that big will probably take up most of my state pension so I have no idea how I am going to cope.

“I don’t get any housing benefits and I only have a works pension to supplement my state pension but that just about pays for my gas and electric.

It is a worrying time.”

Chancellor George Osborne’s proposals for rent increases, as part of the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review, come just weeks after Prime Minister David Cameron said he wanted to end lifetime council house tenancies and replace them with short-term agreements based on income and need.

Cllr Peel has said that changes to the housing policy made a mockery of the concept of affordable housing and could lead to whole estates where people earning decent wages will be pushed into private housing.

He said: “Social housing is an asset for the whole community and should be accessible to everyone. But over a period of time, we will see some of our estates becoming ghettos of the unwaged.

“Not only will new tenants be paying more than existing tenants, they will not be guaranteed to have that house for life.

“Social housing should not be seen as the bottom rung on the ladder for people who have no aspirations.”

Richard Smallman, chief executive of the Bolton Affiliation of Tenants and Residents Associations, which represents tenants, agreed with Cllr Peel.

Cllr Peel said: “It is a complete and utter abandonment of government responsibility that is ideologically driven from a right-wing perspective, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the budget deficit.”

Last night, the Government defended its plans.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: “With a record five million people now on social housing lists, we have to look at options that provide more flexibility and support for more households in the future and a rent system that is fair and affordable for all — both for social tenants and the council taxpayer.”