This year, Cornwall Council has agreed a rent increase in line with the Government’s rent formula, which is Rent plus inflation on 01 September (6.7%) plus 1%. For most people this will be an average rent increase of £6.39 a week.
At the Council meeting of the 20 February, this rent increase was agreed along with a detailed budget for the next 30 years. The highlights are a substantial growth in spending on repairs and maintenance over the next few years.
Councillor Ollie Monk, the Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning, said: “Setting the rent for 2024/5 was always going to be difficult. We talked to many tenants and people wanted improvements to their homes, new homes in their communities, and a smaller rent increase. The reality is that we cannot fulfil the first two asks without increasing rent.
After years of under investment, our homes are in desperate need of modernisation to ensure they meet Decent Homes Standards. Over the next 8 years we will invest £200m in our homes. This includes new windows, doors, boilers, bathrooms and kitchens. And over the next 30 years, we will be investing £656m. At the peak of our investment, we will be spending over £500,000 a week on repairs. We have also substantially increased the amount of money we are spending on day-to-day repairs and renewals, and plan to spend over £83m in the next eight years. Without this rent increase we would not be able to afford to make the investments we plan.”
Su Spence, Managing Director of Cornwall Housing, explains: “We understand the financial pressures our residents are facing and will do all we can to support them. However, having some of the lowest rents in the country comes with a hidden cost – it means there has been a real lack of investment in our properties and residents are telling us they’ve had enough. We agree and improving the condition of our homes is a priority in the years ahead. But the reality is that comes at a price. We’ve worked with our partners at the Council to try to strike the right balance between increasing rents to pay for the works now desperately needed to our homes, with the impact we know an increase in costs has on our tenants.
“Despite the imminent rent increase, Cornwall Housing rents remain some of the lowest social rents available in the country, as well as being significantly lower than affordable or private rental options. We provide support for any of our tenants who are concerned that they won’t be able to afford their rent, and provide information in the annual rent notice which all tenants receive in early March.”
We appreciate we need to get this investment right and we know that there is still work to do. But we have made progress this year and we are pleased that:
In putting together this 30-year budget, a large amount of work has been carried out to ensure we have the best information available to make the right decisions. This work has included:
We will also be building just over 800 new Council homes in the next few years, and this will go some way to help the housing crisis in our community. Over the next year we plan to complete 97 new homes including:
Comparing our rents with the national average and those in Cornwall, the rent we charge is good value. They are very much lower than the private rents in Cornwall and they are also lower than other social landlords in our county. We have also carried out an exercise with 20 other local councils looking at rent levels and our rents were the second lowest in this exercise.
If you are a Council tenant and are worried about paying your rent, we are here to help. We know that this may be a difficult time, and we want to do what we can to support you. Our Inclusion Advisors can provide you with tenancy support and financial advice if you need it. They can also agree a personalised rent payment plan or direct you to other agencies who can help.
If you have any concerns about how this change may affect you, please contact our Inclusion Advisors or Rent Management team on 0300 1234 161 or at info@cornwallhousing.org.uk.
Email: info@cornwallhousing.org.uk
Telephone: 0300 1234 161
