Setting our rents for next year

Setting our rents for next year

By Craig Moule, Group Chief Executive of Sanctuary

I've written before of my deep concern on how the cost-of-living crisis affects our residents – some of whom are elderly, vulnerable and live on low incomes; the least able to absorb rising costs. 

This week, in the Autumn Statement, the Government announced social housing rent increases would be capped at seven per cent in England. This is instead of the usual rule of CPI plus one per cent. 

At Sanctuary we are committed to play our part to solve the challenges our communities face. At an average of £108 a week, our rents are low and more affordable than the private rented sector. Added to this, our role isn't shareholder profit, it's to deliver our social purpose – providing good quality housing and care to people across England and Scotland. 

When we consider what rents we’ll charge from April 2023, we have competing priorities. We understand our residents face rising costs in many areas but we also need to improve our existing homes. We also play our part in providing greener, energy-efficient homes as well as a greater supply of new affordable homes. To do this we need to sustain, and often increase, our level of investment.  

Therefore, in line with the Government’s decision, we will apply a seven per cent increase to our English social and affordable rents, and shared ownership rents, from April 2023. 

Supported housing providers will be exempt from the rent cap and are allowed to increase rents by CPI plus one per cent from April. We will look at this separately and try to keep our increase below the current inflation level. 

In Scotland, rent is currently capped at zero per cent until 31 March 2023 in both the social and private rented sectors. The Scottish Government will announce whether its rent cap’s being extended by 14 January 2023.