Rent setting

The rent we charge you covers the use and occupation of your home, as well as other services we provide - you can read more about these here. All the rents we collect are used to cover such items as the cost of managing and repairing your home and budgeting for major repairs or improvements in the future.

How we work out your rent

We set our rents following strict guidelines set by the government and the Regulator for Social Housing. In 2020 the government gave housing associations the ability to increase their rents by up to CPI (Consumer Price Index) inflation plus 1% each year.

The government published a revised Policy Statement on Rents for Social Housing on 14 December 2022, which sets out the approach all registered providers must take to implement rent increases in 2023/24.

The government has directed the regulator to issue a new Rent Standard to reflect this (Direction on the Rent Standard 2023). The 2023 Rent Standard confirms the following:

A 7% ceiling on the annual increase of rent for low-cost rental accommodation (for both social and affordable rented housing) from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. The 7% ceiling does not apply to supported housing. Supported housing includes sheltered and extra care accommodation.

This rent standard in full is available on the government website https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rent-standard/rent-standard-april-2023-accessible-version

Each housing association’s Board makes its own decision about what rent they charge, following the guidelines, and the amount must cover our costs for providing services to customers and investing in homes.

All housing associations and councils have a formula for calculating rents. This means rents are fairer, reflecting more closely the size, condition and location of a property and local earnings, regardless of who the landlord is.

The formula is based on the following factors:

• 30% of the rent is based on relative property values
• 70% of the rent is based on relative local earnings
• Rent is also based on the number of bedrooms your property has

Your rent will change each year by an amount not greater than the consumer price index (published in September of the year before the rent increase), plus 1%.

Your tenancy agreement gives you full details about your rent and any other charges and describes how your rent is calculated.

We also have a rent setting policy.

Service charges, sinking funds and personal charges are not included in your rent. You can find out more about these charges here.

Annual rent reviews

We review rents every year and we will send you a letter telling you about your new rent. We will give you at least 4 weeks’ notice of your new charges.

Rents on properties not covered by the rent influencing regime

The rents on a few of our properties are worked out in a different way to that described above.
Some properties are not included in the rent increase. These include shared ownership, market rented units and temporary social housing.

The rents on shared ownership properties are increased in accordance with the lease agreement.

We set rents for market rented and intermediate rented properties in line with the local market.

Properties classed as “temporary social housing” have rents set at a level decided by the government or at some other level in agreement with the local authority. Rents are increased by the consumer price index plus 1%, resulting in an 11.1%increase this year.

Rent collection-free weeks

Some of our tenants have four non rent collection weeks each year. We will let you know the dates of these weeks every year in your annual rent and service charge adjustment letter, which will give you at least 4 weeks’ notice of your new charges.

You will be told whether or not you have non rent collection weeks when you sign up for your new home, and your tenancy agreement will also tell you if you have rent free weeks.

If you pay by direct debit, or standing order, your rent is normally divided into 12 equal payments so the rent collection free weeks have already been taken into consideration.

Non rent collection weeks are always the last week in March, the first week in April, and the last two weeks in December. For 2023/24, these are as follows:

• 27 March
• 3 April
• 25 December
• 1 January 2024

If you're not sure if you have rent free weeks or not, get in touch with us and we can help you find out.