Rotherham council tenants set for seven per cent rent increase

The increase would add an average of £6.54 per week to rent bills, raising the rent to an average of £91.52 per week – the maximum allowed by the government.

For residents in shared ownership homes, rents would increase on average by £20.79 per month from £221.18 to £241.97.

Rotherham Council says this would generate an additional £6.82m in comparison to last year, which could fund 960 new kitchens or 1,240 heating systems for council tenants.

The increase is needed to fund the ‘quality and energy efficiency’ of council homes, and provide repairs, it says.

In the coming financial year, £4.5m will be spent replacing old central heating systems, £126m will fund 565 new council homes, and £856m will be used to update existing homes, alongside repairs and maintenance costs.

There are 14,447 tenancies in receipt of housing benefit or universal credit who will not be affected by the rent increase.

A report to Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council’s cabinet states that the increase is “consistent with recent decisions made by the council to increase rents by the limit imposed in the government’s rent standard.

“Whilst it appears a significant increase, it is against a backdrop of significant cost inflation of around 17.8 per cent over the past two years.

“Work carried out last year suggested the total costs of achieving net zero could be c. £585m or more, which is unaffordable.

“As a result, this means that attracting external funding to progress net zero commitments becomes even more significant.”