2024/2025 Rent review
Setting rent levels is not an easy task. Our Board, including our Tenant Director Rita Jones will meet in December to discuss and decide if and how we will apply any rent increases. They will look at information provided by our finance team, government recommendations and what other similar organisations in the area are planning. They will also consider the impact any rent increases will have on tenants and how we can best support anyone that may find themselves in financial difficulties as a result any increase.
As part of their decision making process, we are keen to include feedback from tenants on what they think should be the priorities. This includes what kinds of repairs, maintenance, and services we should focus our efforts on.
Rent setting Q&A
We have created a question and answer sheet, that answers some of the most common questions we get asked about rent reviews each year. This helps explain the process and how the Board makes the decision on rent reviews each year.
As a not-for-profit organisation, our only source of income is the rent we collect from our tenants. This means that every penny we receive has to be spent carefully and deliver the best Value for Money possible.
Over the last few years, the cost of maintaining our homes, providing the services that our tenants need, and running the organisation have increased. Like many of you, we are having to look at how we are spending our budgets and make some difficult decisions on what we can and can’t afford to do.
Last year we completed more than 13,500 repairs and spent more than £32 million on maintaining our homes, managing the services we provide and helping more families find a warm, safe affordable home in our communities.
How are rents set?
Each year, the government sets the maximum amount we can increase our rent by. This figure is usually based on the Customer Price Index (CPI) plus 1% in the September of the year before the increase is applied. So, if the CPI figure in September is 3%, the most we can increase our social housing rent by is 4%.
In September 2022, the CPI rate was 10.1%. However, the government placed a cap on rent increases of 7%. This meant that in 2023/2024, there was a gap between the cost of maintaining our homes and providing services and the rent we were able to collect.
As you’d expect, we plan for these kinds of things and take a long-term approach to our finances. This meant that we had some money available to cover these additional costs this year.
At this point, we do not know if the government is planning to introduce another rent cap this year. In September 2023, CPI was 6.7%. In theory this could mean that we are able to put our social housing rents up by a maximum of 7.7%.
