Council tenants in Sussex are paying more than £14 million to fund repairs in other towns and cities across the country.

Local authorities which own council houses give the money to the Government which then redistributes it.

The money is mainly used to decorate and repair council homes.

One Sussex council says it has been forced to cut work on its own properties because is has to hand over so much cash while an MP has described the Government as “Dick Turpin-like”.

Lewes MP Norman Baker said: “It is an outrage hard-pressed council tenants in my constituency are being fleeced to prop up inefficient councils elsewhere in the country.

“I am sure council tenants would agree that money from the rent collected should be retained and reinvested to maintain council stock.

“This Dick Turpin Government is actively hampering that.”

Steve Saunders, lead councillor for housing, said: “Lewes District Council has managed over recent years to pay this subsidy out of council house rent and still maintained and improved its homes to a high level.

“However, for this year and the next two years we have had to make a £600,000 reduction in our plans to maintain our council homes.

“Why should the poorest in one area subsidise the poorest in other areas? It seems a very strange and highly unfair system.”

Lewes District Council pays £3 million a year to the Government.

According to figures released by Mr Baker, about £18 out of every £69 average weekly rent collected goes to the Government.

Mr Baker has now written to Hazel Blears, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which collects the money.

Brighton and Hove City Council will hand over £11.5 million to the Government although it will receive £9 million for major expenditure to improve homes.

A total of £2.4million from the Adur District Council area will also be handed to the Government.

The story is repeated in Wealden, where the district council will hand over £2.25 million.

Last year Crawley Borough Council paid £11.6 million to the Government and received only £5.5 million in return.

The amount of money each council is required to pay to the Government is determined by a complex formula which takes into account factors such as the number and age of properties and maintenance allowances.

Houses owned by housing associations are not affected by the charges.

The Government said it was reviewing the current system.

A spokeswoman said: “The cost of running council housing varies across the country and for rents to remain affordable we have a redistributive system.

“We are working with a wide range of experts and practitioners to find a way forward that is affordable and fair to all through our wide-ranging review of council housing finance. The review will report to ministers in spring 2009.”

Adur District Council Leader Neil Parkin said: “It is outrageous that the Government takes from the southern poor to buy votes in their northern heartlands.

“If we didn't have to part with this money we would be able to provide a better service and, more importantly, reduce rents.”

Councillor Maria Caulfield, Brighton and Hove City Council’s cabinet member for housing, said: “This is the first year we have gone into negative subsidence and the situation makes it extremely difficult for us to manage housing stock.

“Tenants say, ‘We pay your rent, where are our repairs?’ and find it difficult when we say we have to give money to the Government and then wait to get some back, which is less than what we paid.”

Is it fair that councils in Sussex pay for rent and repairs to other areas? Tell us what you think below.