Housing corporations have been unable to find out if 30% of their tenants should be charged higher rents because of their income, the Volkskrant reports on Friday.

This means income details of 660,000 people have not been provided by the tax office, either because their income is not known or there are problems with the address.

The tax office has admitted ‘something has gone wrong’ with supplying information about hundreds of thousands of household incomes, the Volkskrant said.

Housing corporations cannot put the rent up for tenants with an unknown income more than 4%.

Private sector

But from July corporations and private landlords can increase the rent of tenants in rent-controlled accommodation and earning €33,000 to €43,000 by 4.5%. Those earning more than €43,000 face a rise of 6%.

The aim is to encourage higher earners to leave the rent-controlled sector or to buy their own home.

Just four housing corporations told the Volkskrant they had information about all their tenants and 15 abandoned their efforts to gather the information.

The rent increases do not affect people living in rented accommodation which costs more than €660 a month.