COUNCIL house tenants in Kirklees have been told to brace themselves for inflation-busting rent rises.
They face rises approaching 5% this year.
The increase will add £2.64 a week to average rents in the borough.
It will bring the average to just over £56 a week.
Government ministers are being blamed for forcing the rise.
Clr Khizar Iqbal, Kirklees Cabinet's member for housing, said: "The Government's rules and guidelines in the way it allocates housing subsidy are based on its expectations of rent levels.
"In effect, this means the council has little flexibility in setting the annual rent rise as it has to be in line with the Government's rules and housing subsidy guidelines."
Clr Iqbal said the council was earmarking more than £20m to spend on repairing and maintaining its 24,000 houses, flats and bungalows in the coming year.
Half the total will be spent on planned programmes. The rest will be spent on repairing empty homes and in response to repairs as they crop up and are reported by tenants.
Clr Iqbal said: "The £20m-plus for repairs and maintenance from the annual housing budget is in addition to investment in all the major capital works, such as the decent homes programme, regeneration projects on estates across the district and other investments to improve living standards."
A £12.5m management fee will be paid to Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing, the organisation that manages the homes on the council's behalf.
