How your rent and service charge is set
How your rent is set
Rent is charged on all properties, and covers the cost of things like repairs, housing management and capital improvements and it is not dependent on the costs of services provided.
In October 2017 the government announced its intention to set a long-term rent deal for local authority landlords and housing associations from 2020/21 onwards. The long-term rent deal, which was confirmed in the Policy statement on rents for social housing (February 2019), allows local authority landlords to increase rents on both social rent and affordable rent properties on an annual basis by up to CPI (Consumer Price Index) +1% from 2020, for at least 5 years.
With October CPI announced at 6.7%, this means rents will increase by 7.7%. Social and affordable rents for existing tenants will be increased with effect from April.
How your service charge is set
Service charges
Service charges are shared costs paid by customers who receive shared services, such as in high-rise flats. Shared services might include maintaining lifts, concierge service, caretaking, lighting and cleaning of communal areas.
For service charges, the principle continues for the recovery of the cost of services provided, including an appropriate proportion of overhead costs. This policy will continue to be applied.
Rent and service charges are reviewed annually. We will write to you in March each year informing you of your new rent charge. We will give you four weeks’ notice so that any Direct Debits (or Bank Standing Orders) you have set up to pay your rent can be altered in line with the Direct Debit guarantee.
If you are subject to service charges, details of your new service charges will also be included in this letter so that you can see the full breakdown of your new weekly rent.
We will aim to refund any credit on your account within 10 working days once we have checked that your account is in credit and you have no other debts to be cleared.
Service charges are set in line with national guidelines, which means that service charges are separated from the rent charge and reflect the cost of providing such services. A range of service charges can be payable depending on the services provided to support the management of your property which may include: night-time security, communal cleaning, communal lighting and/or sheltered accommodation.
A breakdown of the services that you pay for will be shown on your rent notification letter and is also shown on your quarterly rent statement if your account is in arrears.
Tenants can access their rent statement and service charge information via their online account.
Garage rent
Garage rent has increased from £11.38 to £12.14 a week (excluding VAT ) payable over 48 weeks. This is an average increase of 6.7% in line with inflation.
Page last updated: 30 January 2024
