Help families who have 'experienced difficult time' and freeze council house rent, says leader of Dudley Council

The average weekly rent for the borough's 23,000 tenants will remain at £82.54 under the plans, which will go before the council's cabinet next month.

It comes despite the council needing to make cuts of £27million over the next year and facing a further shortfall of £30,000.

Last year the council increased rates by an average of 1.5 per cent.

Councillor Lowe said the council wanted to ease the burden on families who have been struggling to make ends meet.

"We will continue to look after the interests of the people we serve as we know local people have experienced difficult times.

"We have no intention to increase housing rents in the same way that we are also proposing to freeze council tax levels for everyone for another year which will keep our council tax as the lowest in the West Midlands," he added.

Councillor Gaye Partridge, cabinet member for housing, added:

"We have now reported to the Take Control Housing Board our clear recommendation that will go before a meeting of the cabinet to keep housing rents as they are. We have 23,000 housing tenants and we know this will be welcomed by thousands of hard working people across the borough."

It's the first time council house rent has been frozen since at least 2002.

The plans will go before the cabinet at a meeting on February 11.

The move goes against a national formula which had calculated that the council could increase rents by up to three per cent.

The council is proposing savings of £22.9m for 2015/16, moving up to £25.3m by 2016/17 and £27.4m by 2017/18.

But the council has warned it faces a deficit of approaching £30m by 2017/18 if additional savings are not found.

The budget proposals so far include a shake-up of Dudley youth services to save £200,000.

There are also plans to increase burial fees, which is expected to bring in £520,000 in the next three years.

Savings will also be made by transferring the management of the New Bradley Hall care home in Kingswinford to a private firm.

Among the proposals already highlighted to save money are plans to turn off some street lights after midnight to reduce energy bills, saving £100,000 by 2018.

A public consultation was launched at the end of last year giving people the chance to have their say on the services which matter most to them.

Residents have been asked to name their top five council services they thought were most important - from rubbish collections to children's services.

The consultation runs until Sunday.