We are making changes to rents from 01 April 2024.
Keeping rents fair and affordable is a key priority for South Lakes Housing and every year we review the rent and service charges you pay for your home for the following year.
We continue to benchmark our rents and our social rents are approximately 60% of local market rents.
How much is this year’s rent increase?
We are increasing rents for our social and affordable rented homes by 7.7% from April 2024. Like most other housing associations, we are doing this so that we can continue to invest in our existing homes, services, and communities, as well as build more much-needed social homes.
The Government has confirmed that from April benefits will increase in line with inflation, and that the National Living Wage and pensions will increase above inflation. If you receive Housing Benefit, Universal Credit or another form of benefit to pay your rent, these payments will rise from April 2024 onwards.
If you are a Shared Ownership resident, your rent increase will depend on the terms of your lease and you will receive a letter.
How is rent set?
As a social landlord, we follow the Regulator of Social Housing’s framework for rent setting, and we review our rents based on Government rules.
The Government calculation means that rents can increase by 7.7% this year.
Why we need to increase your rent?
As a not-for-profit, community benefit housing association, the money we collect from rents is re-invested in maintaining and improving our current homes and providing much needed new affordable housing in our local communities.
Our costs are increasing at a rate that is significantly higher than inflation, especially for core services such as providing repairs and maintenance, building materials, and service contracts. This means we need to increase rents to continue to safely provide key services, improve the homes we manage, invest in critical safety works, improve ventilation to prevent issues caused by condensation, build new affordable homes, and support our local communities and customers.
Increasing rents means that in 2024-25 we can:
- Maintain and improve our existing homes – over £13 million will be spent on existing homes, including £4.6 million making homes more sustainable and energy-efficient under our ‘Warmer Greener Homes’ initiative, reducing our carbon footprint and keeping running costs down for customers.
- Develop high quality affordable homes for those in need – over £11 million will be spent, utilising over £2 million of Government grants to provide much needed new and sustainable homes for local people.
- Invest in your communities and neighbourhoods – over £1 million will be spent on improving communal areas and the environment to provide sustainable neighbourhoods for customers.
- Continue to improve services for our customers.
- Provide a reliable responsive repairs service 365 days a year. We face increases in the cost of delivering this work this year with the cost of labour and materials increasing well above inflation. We are working hard to keep costs down and ensure the rent you pay is used efficiently and effectively for our customers and communities.
You can also find out more about how your rent is invested in our Customer Annual Report 2022-2023.
Help and support available for residents
We know that many people are facing financial difficulties because of rising prices and energy bills. We are committed to supporting you and our friendly, knowledgeable Income Team can provide you with advice and support and can signpost you to help available.
When you receive your rent review letter, please contact us if you have a query about it or if you think you’ll have difficulty paying.
You can contact us via the My Account customer portal, email us at customerservices@southlakeshousing.co.uk or telephone us on 0300 303 8540.
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