On this page you can find information on our different rent types, how we set your rent, and how increases are calculated.
How do you set my rent?
This depends on the kind of tenancy that you have.
Our tenancies have two main types of rent known as social rent and affordable rent.
If you are a shared ownership customer your lease will say how we set and change your rent.
Government policy controls how most of our rents are set and increased each year, so our policies will change to keep us in line with that.
What is social rent?
Social rent is an umbrella term that often refers to 'formula rent' or 'fair rent'.
Formula rent is set using a calculation that takes the value of your home, local earnings, and the number of bedrooms in your home to work out your rent. The aim of this is to ensure similar rents are charged for similar social rent properties.
Fair rent is set by the Valuation Office Agency rather than the 'formula rent', but it will never be higher than the 'formula rent' for your home.
Social rent homes may also have a service charge to pay. Service charges pay for the upkeep of shared spaces outside of your home. Read more about service charges.
What is Affordable Rent?
Affordable rent will be up to 80% of the local market rent for a property of the same size and type as yours.
Affordable rents include the upkeep of any shared spaces outside of your home.
Affordable rents are usually higher than social rents, this is because of changes to how the government has funded new social housing since 2011.
How much can my rent go up each year?
Annual rent increases for social rent and affordable rent are decided by the government.
A measure of inflation called the consumer prices index (CPI) is used, and at the moment the government says we can increase rent by a maximum of CPI, plus one percent each year.
CPI is worked out by measuring the annual change in average prices for a range of goods and services. We use the September figure to work out the rent increase for the following April.
My tenancy isn’t social rent, affordable rent or shared ownership. How is my rent set and increased?
If you have another type of tenancy, how your rent is set and increased each year will vary.
Rent to Buy and Intermediate Rent tenancies are usually 80% of the local market rent with annual increases of CPI plus one percent each year.
Market rents are set using the local rate for a similar home, and the tenancy agreement will set out how rents will be increased each year.