Consultation outcome

Rents for social housing from 2015 to 2016

• From: Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (2018 to 2021)
• Published: 31 October 2013
• Last updated: 23 May 2014 — See all updates

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Applies to England

This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Rents for social housing from 2015 to 2016 consultation: summary of responses

Ref: ISBN 9781409842002

PDF, 143 KB, 26 pages

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

Request an accessible format.

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email alternativeformats@communities.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Detail of outcome

On 31 October 2013, the government published a consultation paper setting out proposals for rents for social housing from April 2015.

Alongside the consultation paper, we published a draft direction on rent to the social housing regulator, and draft guidance on rents for stock-owning local authorities, and sought views on these.

We are now publishing the summary of responses to the consultation, along with a finalised direction and guidance. Section 4 of the summary of responses sets out and explains our decisions on policy on rents for social housing from April 2015.

---

Original consultation

Summary

This consultation sets out the proposed changes to rent policy for social housing, to apply from April 2015 onwards.

This consultation ran from
31 October 2013 to 11:45pm on 24 December 2013

Consultation description

Following announcements at Budget 2013 and the Spending Round 2013 on changes to rent policy the main changes are:

• moving from annual increases in weekly rents of Retail Price Index (RPI) + 0.5 percentage points (+ up to £2 for social rents), to increases of Consumer Price Index (CPI) + 1 percentage point

• as a result, removing (from 1 April 2015) the flexibility available to landlords to increase weekly social rents each year by an additional £2, above the increase in formula rent, where the rent is below the rent flexibility level and rent cap

• making clear that rent policy does not apply where a social tenant household has an income of at least £60,000 a year

Section 197 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 gives the Secretary of State certain powers to direct the social housing regulator to set standards, and about the content of those standards. Once formally issued, a direction is binding on the regulator when it consults on and set standards for private registered providers. We propose to use these powers to issue a new direction to the regulator on rent. We also propose to issue new guidance to stock-owning local authorities, a draft of which is included in the consultation.

This consultation invites views on the proposed changes to the policy, draft direction and draft guidance. It runs for 8 weeks and closes on 24 December 2013.

Documents

Rents for social housing from 2015 to 2016: consultation

Ref: ISBN 9781409840459

PDF, 113 KB, 17 pages

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

Request an accessible format.

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email alternativeformats@communities.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Guidance on rents for social housing: draft for consultation

Ref: ISBN 9781409840558

PDF, 136 KB, 19 pages

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

Request an accessible format.

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email alternativeformats@communities.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Direction on the rent standard 2013: draft for consultation

Ref: ISBN 9781409840565

PDF, 47.3 KB, 5 pages

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

Request an accessible format.

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email alternativeformats@communities.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Published 31 October 2013
Last updated 23 May 2014 + show all updates

1. 23 May 2014

   Added rents for social housing from 2015 to 2016 consultation: summary of responses.

2. 31 October 2013

   First published.