Open consultation

How to implement Social Rent convergence

Published 2 July 2025

Applies to England

This consultation seeks views on how to implement Social Rent convergence, as part of the government’s 10 year rent settlement for social housing. 

This follows the consultation on future social housing rent policy that the government carried out between October and December 2024.

Scope of this consultation

Following the previous consultation, the government announced (as part of the Spending Review) that there will be a 10 year rent settlement for social housing from 1 April 2026 in which rents will be permitted to increase by Consumer Prices Index (CPI) +1% per annum.  

However, the government received clear feedback in response to the previous consultation that the level of investment in new and existing social housing that is needed to deliver the government’s ambitions will not be unlocked unless Social Rent convergence is implemented.  

Convergence would allow rents for Social Rent properties that are currently below ‘formula rent’ to increase by an additional amount each year, over and above the CPI+1% limit, until they ‘converge’ with formula rent. Formula rent refers to the formula that is used to calculate the rent that may be charged for a given property when it is let to a new tenant. A convergence mechanism was originally introduced in 2002 but was scrapped in 2015. 

The government therefore confirmed at the Spending Review that it will implement a convergence mechanism as part of the new rent settlement. The details of precisely how, and at what level, this mechanism will be implemented will be confirmed at Autumn Budget in 2025, taking account of the benefits to the supply and quality of social housing, the impact on rent payers and the impact on the government’s fiscal rules. To inform that decision, this consultation focuses on how convergence should be implemented. 

Once that decision has been made, the Secretary of State intends to direct the Regulator of Social Housing to set a standard on rents that will apply to Registered Providers of social housing. This encompasses: 

• Private Registered Providers (including housing associations that are Private Registered Providers) 
• Local Authority Registered Providers (i.e. local authorities with retained housing stock) 

Section 197 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 gives the Secretary of State the power to direct the Regulator of Social Housing to set a standard on rent, and about the content of that standard. Once issued, a Direction is binding on the Regulator. We propose to use this power to issue a new Direction to the Regulator on rent, and to revoke directions on rents that were issued by the previous government in 2019 and 2023.  

We published a draft Direction and an accompanying draft policy statement alongside the previous consultation in 2024. We are publishing updated drafts of both documents alongside this consultation. These updated versions reflect the decision to implement Social Rent convergence (although this consultation is seeking views on how this should be implemented). They also incorporate a number of minor and technical changes, following feedback received in response to the previous consultation.  

Geographical scope

The proposals will apply to rents charged by providers registered with the Regulator of Social Housing. They will therefore mainly affect tenants of social housing in England. 

Impact assessment

An Impact Assessment has been prepared and is attached at Annex C.

Consultation information

Body responsible for the consultation

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Duration

This consultation will last for 8 weeks from Wednesday 2 July to 11.45pm on Wednesday 27 August.  

Enquiries

For any enquiries about the consultation please email: socialhousingrents@communities.gov.uk 

How to respond 

Please note that we are required by law to publish every response to this consultation. 

Therefore please ensure that your response does not include any material that you are not content for us to publish. 

You may respond by completing the online survey. 

Alternatively, you can email your response to the questions in this consultation to: socialhousingrents@communities.gov.uk  

If you are responding in writing, please make it clear which questions you are responding to. Written responses should be sent to: 

Social Housing Rents 
Affordable Housing Regulation and Investment Division
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF 

Please submit your response through only one of the above routes. 

When you reply it would be very useful if you could confirm whether you are replying as an individual or submitting an official response on behalf of an organisation and include: 

• your name 
• your position (if applicable) 
• the name of organisation (if applicable)

Introduction

The government is committed to delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation. We are also determined to ensure that people renting homes in both the social and private rented sectors can live in safe and decent housing. It is therefore vital that our rent policy for social housing gives Registered Providers (RPs) the stability they need to borrow and invest in new and existing homes, while also ensuring that there are appropriate protections for existing and future social housing tenants.  

These aims underpinned the rent policy for social housing that we proposed in the consultation we published in October 2024. We proposed a rent policy that would:   

• remain in place for at least 5 years, from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2031. However, we sought views on possible variations to this approach that could improve the stability of rent policy – such as confirming our policy for a longer period (for example, 10 years) or on a rolling basis 
• generally^{[footnote 1]} permit social housing rents to increase each year by up to CPI plus 1 percentage point (CPI+1%), applying to both Social Rent and Affordable Rent homes 

Having taken account of the responses to the consultation, the government announced as part of the Spending Review a 10 year social housing rent settlement from 1 April 2026 in which rents will be permitted to increase by CPI+1% each year. The length of the settlement was doubled from 5 to 10 years in order to give RPs, lenders and investors greater long-term certainty. This was announced alongside a 10 year £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme – providing a historic 10 year settlement for social housing on both capital funding and rent policy.  

However, the government received clear feedback in response to the consultation that the level of investment in new and existing social housing that is needed to deliver the government’s ambitions will not be unlocked unless a Social Rent convergence mechanism is implemented. This would allow rents on Social Rent properties that are currently below formula rent to increase by an additional amount each year, over and above the CPI+1% limit, until they ‘converge’ with formula rent. 

The government therefore confirmed at the Spending Review that it will implement a Social Rent convergence mechanism as part of the new rent settlement. The details of precisely how, and at what level, this mechanism will be implemented will be confirmed at Autumn Budget later this year, taking account of the benefits to the supply and quality of social housing, the impact on rent payers and the impact on the government’s fiscal rules. 

To inform that decision, this consultation focuses on how convergence should be implemented. In particular, it seeks views on by how much – either £1 or £2 – weekly rents should be permitted to increase each year (over and above CPI+1%) until they converge with formula rent, and when convergence should be available during the period of the 10 year rent settlement. 

Once the decision about how to implement convergence has been announced at Autumn Budget, we intend to reflect that decision – and the 10 year rent settlement as a whole – in a Direction to the Regulator of Social Housing (the Regulator). We will also publish formal government responses to both consultations at that stage. 

A draft of the Direction to the Regulator is attached at Annex A. This would require the Regulator, when setting its Rent Standard, to have regard to a policy statement on rents for social housing from 1 April 2026 (‘the Policy Statement’). A draft of the Policy Statement is attached at Annex B.  

The draft Direction and Policy Statement are updated versions of the drafts published alongside the previous consultation. These updated versions reflect the decision to implement Social Rent convergence (although this consultation is seeking views on precisely how this should be implemented).  

The updated draft Direction and Policy Statement also incorporate a number of minor and technical changes, following feedback received in response to the previous consultation: 

• reframing rules around initial rent setting and resetting of rents to clarify when and how they apply in different circumstances
• specifying how RPs may convert weekly rents to monthly rents, where they wish to charge rent on a monthly basis
• stating that the number of bedrooms a property has should be the basis for applying the bedroom weighting in the calculation of formula rent
• making clear that RPs may not at any time charge a rent for a Social Rent property in excess of the rent caps. We’ve made some further changes to the original draft of the policy statement to clarify this
• clarifying how the relative value of a property should be assessed for the purposes of calculating formula rents
• clarifying rules around conversions of Social Rent and Affordable Rent to other categories of accommodation 
• in relation to fair rents, making clear that the limit on annual rent increases set by our rent policy cannot be exceeded even where the maximum fair rent is increased by more than that amount
• allowing RPs to let homes at Affordable Rent where they have not previously been let at Social Rent, without having to obtain permission to do so
• changing the requirement for Affordable Rent properties to be no lower than formula rent to a permission to treat Social Rent as a ‘ceiling’. In our original draft, we proposed removing formula rent as a ‘floor’ for Affordable Rent because we wanted to ensure there was flexibility for RPs to charge a lower rent than formula rent if they wished. Following feedback from the consultation, we recognised that this could negatively impact the rents that RPs are able to charge in a small number of cases, which was not our intention. We also recognised that ‘ceiling’ was a more appropriate terminology than ‘floor’, given that we are referring to an upper limit, and that it is Social Rent and not formula rent that should be considered the ‘ceiling’ 
• reframing some of Chapter 5 to clarify the circumstances under which these exceptions apply. We have also amended the definitions of intermediate rent accommodation and temporary social housing, including to reflect the government’s intention to abolish Assured Shorthold Tenancies (through the Renters Rights Bill) 

The updated draft Direction also includes a provision that would disapply the usual statutory requirement on the Regulator to consult before setting its Rent Standard. This is to ensure there is still sufficient time to bring a new Rent Standard into effect from 1 April 2026 (by which point there will have been two statutory consultations on the underlying policy).  

We invite your views by 11.45pm on Wednesday 27 August.

Context

Most rented social housing properties are let at ‘Social Rent’. Social Rents are set using a formula specified by government. This creates a ‘formula rent’ for each property, which is calculated in a way that takes account of the relative value of the property, the size of the property and relative local income levels. Landlords have flexibility to set initial rents up to 5% above the formula rent (10% in the case of supported housing) – this is known as the ‘rent flexibility level’.  

In 2011, ‘Affordable Rent’ was introduced. This permits rents to be set at up to 80% of market rent (inclusive of service charges). Landlords can only let homes at Affordable Rent where certain conditions apply. 

Government rent policy also applies to annual changes in Social Rent and Affordable Rent levels. Since April 2020, RPs have been permitted to increase rents by up to CPI+1% per annum (with the CPI rate taken at the previous September) – other than where the rent on a Social Rent property exceeds the rent flexibility level (in which case the maximum annual increase is CPI). This policy was temporarily suspended in 2023-24 and replaced by a 7% limit on annual rent increases in that year – although supported housing was excepted. The 7% limit did not affect formula rents, which have increased by CPI+1% each year since 2020. 

Please refer to our previous consultation for further background information about the regulation of social housing and about policies relating to rents and social security.  

Related consultations    

Decent Homes Standard (DHS)

Everyone deserves to live in a home that is safe and decent, and all tenants deserve to be treated with respect. To meet these commitments, reform is needed to the DHS. We are seeking views on this through our consultation on a reformed DHS for Social and Privately Rented Homes which closes on 10 September 2025.  

Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES)

Energy efficient properties are warmer, providing tenants with homes that are more comfortable and less susceptible to damp and mould. We are consulting on requiring all social rented sector properties to reach EPC C by 2030 using new EPC reform metrics. We are seeking views on this through our consultation on MEES in the Social Rented Sector which closes on 10 September 2025.   

We have carefully considered the costs associated with an updated DHS and MEES, as well as wider cost pressures and other regulatory changes such as Awaab’s Law, when developing our rent policy proposals. Further information about estimated DHS and MEES costs can be found in the Impact Assessments published alongside the consultations.

Implementing Social Rent convergence

Why the government is implementing Social Rent convergence

The government is committed to the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation. We are also determined to ensure that tenants can live in homes that are safe, decent and warm.

At the Spending Review, the government set out the main elements of its social and affordable housing investment strategy. This includes a new Social and Affordable Homes Programme that will provide the biggest boost to social and affordable housing investment in a generation. In addition, we will for the first time give social landlords equal access to government remediation funding schemes, providing over £1 billion of new investment between 2026-27 and 2029-30.

Alongside government investment, significant investment by RPs will be required to improve the quality and supply of social and affordable housing. However, RPs’ financial capacity has weakened over recent years. This has been due to a combination of rising repairs and maintenance costs, increasing interest costs and real-terms rent cuts imposed by the previous government.

The effect has been to reduce RPs’ aggregate financial capacity to a historic low. In aggregate across all 162 Local Authority Registered Providers (LARPs) with Housing Revenue Accounts, spending has exceeded turnover in 4 of the past 5 years, leading to a corresponding decrease in aggregate reserves as they are used to cover the shortfall in the ring fenced account. Private Registered Providers’ (PRPs) aggregate interest cover (essentially the ratio between surplus and interest payable, a key measure of their financial viability) has declined from 174% in 2018 to 88% in 2024.

The reduction in financial capacity led RPs to scale back their development plans. For example, large PRPs reduced their 5-year development forecast by 105,000 homes between June 2022 and June 2024. A recent survey conducted by Southwark council of 76 stockholding local authorities found that 68% expected to scale back their housebuilding commitments.

The rent policy set by government will have significant implications for RPs’ ability to invest in improving the quality and supply of social and affordable housing. As their single biggest source of turnover, projections of future rental income underpin RPs’ business plans and their available capacity to raise borrowing. RPs will not be in a position to participate fully in the government’s expanded Social and Affordable Homes Programme, nor deliver more homes through Section 106, if they lack the necessary borrowing capacity to do so. Expectations about future rental income are also important to lenders and to potential new investors in social housing, and partly determine the terms on which RPs can raise capital.

The 10 year rent settlement, alongside a 10 year £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme, gives the sector the long-term certainty it needs. It sets the foundations for RPs to play their full role in delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation, as well as lasting change in the safety and quality of social housing.

However, the majority of Social Rent homes have rents that remain below formula, and the government recognises that this is an important limiting factor on the sector’s overall financial capacity. In 2024, PRPs held 2.1 million Social Rent homes, of which 1.3 million (61.3%) were below formula rent. LARPs held 1.5 million Social Rent homes, of which 1.5 million (99.9%) were below formula rent^{[footnote 2]}.

This deficit between actual rents and formula rents has arisen for 2 main reasons. First, although there was a convergence mechanism in rent policy between 2002 and 2015 that allowed actual rents to be brought into line with formula rents, some rents remained below formula by 2015. This mechanism permitted – but did not require – weekly rents to increase by an additional £2 per annum until they ‘converged’ with formula rents. Second, the temporary 7% limit that applied to rent increases in 2023-24 resulted in more homes having rents below formula (formula rents increased by 11.1% in that year).

The government believes that it is right to address the disparity between actual rents and formula rents by implementing Social Rent convergence. This would increase the financial capacity of RPs to invest in new and existing homes. Failing to do so would have adverse consequences for those who would otherwise benefit from that investment. This includes existing social housing tenants, where the constraining effect of unconverged rents on RPs’ financial capacity could result in their properties not being maintained at the standard they have every right to expect. It also includes those who are currently homeless or in unaffordable or unsuitable private rented housing, for whom the provision of an affordable, safe and secure home can have a life-changing impact.

We believe that implementing Social Rent convergence is a fairer approach than increasing the CPI-linked limit, which would permit higher rent increases across the board. We do not believe it would be fair to ask those who are already paying higher rents – for example, those in Affordable Rent homes or Social Rent homes with rents that are at or above formula rent – to meet the cost of rent increases in excess of CPI+1%. Implementing Social Rent convergence is preferable because it would involve those who currently pay lower rents being asked to pay an additional amount.

Implementing convergence would, over time, achieve greater fairness between the rents paid by tenants of Social Rent homes. An explicit aim of the convergence policy introduced in 2002 was that tenants should pay similar rents for similar properties. In the period since that convergence policy was abolished in 2015, tenants in homes with rents that remained below formula will have continued to pay less than would typically be charged to new tenants entering similar Social Rent properties.

On average, the gap between the rents paid by these tenants and Private Rented Sector rents will also have grown over this period. For example, as a percentage of the average Private Rented Sector rent, the average rent for a PRP general needs Social Rent property has reduced from 44% (£95.88/£219.33) in 2015 to 37% (£109.44/£295.12) in 2024. Chart 1 below shows how the growth in social housing rents has lagged both CPI and increases in private rents since 2015.

Chart 1: Rents and inflation index, Jan 2015 to April 2025

It is fundamentally important that rents for Social Rent homes should remain below rents in the Private Rented Sector. Formula rents remain, on average, well below average rents in the Private Rented Sector – particularly in the areas of the country where housing affordability is under greatest strain. In 2024, the average general needs formula rent was £112.11 per week for PRPs and £104.98 for LARPs, compared to an average Private Rented Sector rent of £295.12. In London, the average general needs formula rent was £147.80 for PRPs and £130.22 for LARPs, compared to an average Private Rented Sector rent of £471.96. 

A potential benefit of convergence is that it gives RPs the option to implement lower rent increases for their Social Rent homes in one year with a route to recovering the lost income in subsequent years. This could make it possible for RPs to respond to their tenants’ short-term cost of living pressures in a way that causes less harm to their financial capacity over the long-term.   

Nevertheless, we recognise that higher rent increases affect the disposable income of some households and also have implications for social security spending. Therefore, in deciding how to implement convergence, we must balance the interests of those who would benefit from improvements to the supply and quality of social housing supported by higher rents, and those tenants whose disposable income would be adversely affected by this – as well as taking account of the impact on the government’s fiscal rules. The purpose of this consultation is to inform that decision.

How Social Rent convergence should be implemented

The government’s planned approach to implementing Social Rent convergence

Our approach to implementing convergence would: 

• permit rents on Social Rent homes that are below formula rent to increase gradually, over time, to formula rent
• place an absolute cash limit on the additional amount by which weekly rents can increase each year, over and above CPI+1%. We are proposing that this cash limit should either be £1 or £2. We recognise that some respondents to our previous consultation advocated a higher limit (for example, £3). We are proposing to restrict this to either £1 or £2 in order to reduce the additional cost to households whose disposable income would be affected and to limit the impact on social security spending 
• not permit rents to increase above formula rent through convergence (unlike the mechanism that was in place between 2002 and 2015). Once a rent reaches parity with formula rent, the maximum annual rent increase would once again be CPI+1%   
• be strictly optional for RPs. If RPs do not wish to converge their rents, or only wish to apply convergence in some years but not others, or wish to converge their rents at a slower rate than would be permitted under our policy, they will be free to do so  

The key choices on which the government is seeking views though this consultation are: 

• the rate of convergence: whether weekly rents should be allowed to increase each year by either £1 or £2 (over and above the CPI+1% limit) until they converge with formula rent 
• the timing of convergence: whether convergence should be available to RPs for the full period of the 10 year rent settlement, or only for part of it (i.e. by being implemented after 2026 and/or terminated before 2036)

The implications of these choices are discussed below.

How to implement convergence: the implications for investment in new and existing homes  

Permitting rents for Social Rent properties that are below formula to increase by an additional amount, over and above the CPI+1% limit, would result in additional rental income for RPs. This in turn would generate additional financial capacity to invest in both new and existing homes.  

The decision about the rate of convergence – whether to permit it at £1 or £2 – will affect the level of additional rental income generated over a given period, as indicated by tables 7 and 8 in the Impact Assessment. These tables assume, for ease of comparison, that convergence is available for the full length of the 10 year rent settlement period.  

The effect on total rental income of permitting a faster rate of convergence is greater in the earlier years. This is because, given enough time, convergence at £1 would still result in all rents eventually converging to formula – just at a slower rate than if convergence were permitted at £2. A potential advantage of a faster rate of convergence is that this could enable RPs to increase the supply and quality of social housing more quickly.          

This effect of permitting a faster rate of convergence would not be evenly distributed across RPs. This will depend on the number of Social Rent properties RPs hold with an actual rent that lags formula rent, and the size of the gap between the two. In the case of homes with a gap between actual and formula rent that is greater than £1, implementing convergence at £2 would have a bigger impact on financial capacity than convergence at £1. In the case of homes with a gap of £1 or less, we assume that the effect of convergence at £1 or £2 would be identical.    

A decision to permit convergence at a slower rate would disproportionately affect LARPs. 99.9% of LARP dwellings require convergence, compared to 61.3% of PRP dwellings. In 2024, among PRPs the average general needs Social Rent was £109.44 and the average formula rent was £112.11 – a gap of £2.67. Among LARPs, the average general needs Social Rent was £99.24 and the average formula rent was £104.98 – a gap of £5.74. The gap between actual and formula rents is smaller in the case of supported housing (in the case of PRP supported housing, average actual rent exceeds the average formula rent).^{[footnote 3]}  

A decision to permit convergence at a slower rate would disproportionately affect RPs operating in London. The gap between average actual and formula rents is greatest by far in the capital (for both PRPs and LARPs), as shown in Tables 1 and 2 below. This is an important consideration because: 

• financial pressures are currently particularly acute for RPs operating in London
• some of the biggest contributors to the delivery of new social and affordable housing in recent years have been RPs who own significant numbers of homes in the capital
• these RPs account for a large proportion of the decrease in forecast development that RPs have been reporting since 2022.^{[footnote 4]}

Table 1: Gap between average actual rent and average formula rent for PRPs (£ per week; negative number indicates that average actual rent is higher than average formula rent)^{[footnote 3]}

Region	General Needs	Supported Housing
East Midlands	1.87	-13.46
East of England	2.92	-9.17
London	8.35	-6.65
North East	2.01	-13.36
North West	2.07	-10.35
South East	1.64	-10.32
South West	0.46	-8.75
West Midlands	1.64	-9.04
Yorkshire & the Humber	0.22	-16.75
England	2.67	-10.17

Table 2: Gap between average actual rent and average formula rent for LARPs (£ per week; negative number indicates that average actual rent is higher than average formula rent)

Region	General Needs	Supported Housing
East Midlands	4.88	4.61
East of England	6.47	4.72
London	9.14	5.31
North East	4.36	3.54
North West	5.33	4.27
South East	5.61	3.88
South West	4.86	3.26
West Midlands	2.77	2.26
Yorkshire & the Humber	3.65	2.33
England	5.74	4.07

The timing of convergence has similar implications. If convergence were only available for part of the rent settlement period, this would restrict the amount of additional rental income that RPs could raise and consequently also the additional financial capacity to invest in new and existing homes that could be generated. 

The effect of permitting a shorter period of convergence, as opposed to the full 10 years, would be greatest where the gap between actual and formula rents is biggest – as these are the rents that need the most time to ‘catch up’. Given the pattern of actual and formula rents across Social Rent homes, there would be a diminishing marginal impact of permitting each additional year of convergence. So, for example, permitting convergence for 3 years rather than 2 years has a significantly greater impact on aggregate RP rental income than permitting it for 10 years rather than 9 years.

How to implement convergence: the impact on households in rented social housing and on social security spending

We recognise that permitting Social Rent convergence would have an impact on the disposable income of some tenants. This impact will depend on how their rent is paid.  

Around two-thirds of households living in the social rented sector in England receive support to pay their rents through Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit (HB/UCHE). The maximum amount of support they receive is based on their actual rent, as opposed to the private rented sector where the maximum is based on the Local Housing Allowance. The maximum amount of HB/UCHE is then subject to deductions, in particular for the removal of the spare room subsidy (RSRS) and the benefit cap. The impact on those subject to RSRS would be marginal and will impact those on the benefit cap in a limited number of cases. 

Where households’ disposable income would be reduced by higher rent increases – in most cases due to not being in receipt of HB/UCHE – the impact would be lower if a slower rate of convergence were permitted. However, under both the £1 and £2 options, we estimate that average social housing rents would remain affordable (measured as a proportion of gross income) across the 10 year rent settlement period: 

• for working households not in receipt of HB/UCHE, the median weekly social housing rent in 2023-24 (£112) was 15.4% of the median weekly gross income (£729). We estimate that this would peak at 17.1% in 2029/30 if convergence was permitted at either £1 or £2. This estimate takes account of the effect of the CPI+1% limit on rent increases. 
• For pensioners not in receipt of HB/UCHE, the median weekly social housing rent in 2023-24 (£106) was 23.8% of the median weekly gross income (£446). We estimate that if convergence was permitted at £1 this would peak at 26.5% in 2029/30 or at 26.6% if convergence was permitted at £2. Again, these estimates take account of the effect of the CPI+1% limit on rent increases. The government has committed to protecting the State Pension ‘Triple Lock’ for the duration of this Parliament, which has increased the full new State Pension by £470 in 2025-26. The extra income comes on top of a substantial increase in 2024-25, which saw those receiving a full new State Pension get a £900 boost. 

Restricting the timing of convergence – for example, by bringing it into effect later than 2026 and/or terminating it before 2036 – would reduce the affordability impacts set out above. For the reasons discussed earlier, the marginal effect would be greater for each year deducted from the permitted period of convergence (for example, permitting convergence for 2 years rather than 3 years would have a bigger impact on affordability than permitting it for 9 years rather than 10). However, it is possible that permitting convergence over a longer period would make RPs more inclined to restrict rent increases in response to short-term cost of living pressures experienced by tenants. This is because a longer period of convergence would give RPs greater opportunity to recover the lost income in subsequent years.   

Although permitting convergence at a faster rate and over a longer period of time would result in a greater impact on households’ disposable income, only a minority of social housing tenants’ disposable income will be affected by convergence (for the reasons set out earlier). Moreover, convergence would only result in tenants paying more where their rent is below formula rent – below the maximum that could be charged if their home was re-let to a new tenant. As noted above, formula rents remain (on average) well below average rents in the Private Rented Sector, and the implementation of convergence would follow a period in which the growth in social housing rents has lagged both CPI and increases in private rents. 

Social tenants would benefit where higher rent increases result in higher levels of investment by RPs to deliver improvements to the quality and energy efficiency of their homes. Where RPs have the financial capacity to improve the energy efficiency of their homes (for example, co-investing alongside funding from the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund), tenants may benefit from lower energy bills, resulting in warmer, cheaper homes that are free from damp and mould. Implementing convergence at a faster rate would do more to increase RPs’ financial capacity to undertake that investment. 

Decisions about rent policy must also consider the interests of those who are not in social housing and would benefit from an increase in its supply – such as those who are currently trapped in Temporary Accommodation or unaffordable and/or unsuitable privately rented housing. Again, implementing convergence at a faster rate would go further to increase RPs’ financial capacity to deliver new social and affordable homes. 

Implementing convergence at £2 would result in higher social security spending than doing so at £1. Again, in line with the differential impact on rental income, the effect of opting for a faster or slower rate of convergence would be biggest in the earlier years.  

Tables 2 and 3 in the Impact Assessment provide an estimate of the increase in rental costs for tenants and social security expenditure if convergence were implemented at £2 or £1. For ease of comparison, these tables assume that convergence is available for the full length of the 10 year rent settlement period.

Consultation questions

Question 1: At what level should Social Rent convergence be permitted? 

• £1 per week 
• £2 per week 

Question 2: How would the benefits for the supply and quality of social and affordable housing differ depending on whether convergence was permitted at £1 or £2? 

Question 3: How would the impacts on households differ depending on whether convergence was permitted at £1 or £2?    

Question 4: Should convergence be implemented from 1 April 2026 or from a later date, and what would be the implications of implementing it from a later date? 

Question 5: How long should convergence be in place for, and what would be the implications of different durations of convergence?

About this consultation

This consultation document and consultation process have been planned to adhere to the Consultation Principles issued by the Cabinet Office.  

Representative groups are asked to give a summary of the people and organisations they represent, and where relevant who else they have consulted in reaching their conclusions when they respond. 

Information provided in response to this consultation will be published to comply with section 197 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. Names of individual respondents will not be published. In addition, responses may be published or disclosed in accordance with the access to information regimes (primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA), the General Data Protection Regulation, and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. 

Owing to the legal requirement to publish responses, we cannot guarantee confidentiality in respect of your response. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the department. 

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will at all times process your personal data in accordance with UK data protection legislation and in the majority of circumstances this will mean that your personal data will not be disclosed to third parties. A full privacy notice is included below. 

Individual responses will not be acknowledged unless specifically requested. 

Your opinions are valuable to us. Thank you for taking the time to read this document and respond. 

Are you satisfied that this consultation has followed the Consultation Principles?  If not or you have any other observations about how we can improve the process please contact us via the complaints procedure.

Personal data

The following is to explain your rights and give you the information you are  entitled to under UK data protection legislation.  

Note that this section only refers to personal data (your name, contact details and any other information that relates to you or another identified or identifiable individual personally) not the content otherwise of your response to the consultation.  

1. The identity of the data controller and contact details of our Data Protection Officer     

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is the data controller. The Data Protection Officer can be contacted at dataprotection@communities.gov.uk or by writing to the following address:

Data Protection Officer,
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government,
Fry Building,
2 Marsham Street,
London
SW1P 4DF

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• trade union membership 
• genetics 
• biometrics  
• health (including disability-related information) 
• sex life
• sexual orientation

By ‘criminal offence data’, we mean information relating to a living individual’s criminal convictions or offences or related security measures. 

3. Our legal basis for processing your personal data 

The collection of your personal data is lawful under article 6(1)(e) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation as it is necessary for the performance by MHCLG of a task in the public interest/in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller.  Section 8(d) of the Data Protection Act 2018 states that this will include processing of personal data that is necessary for the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown or a government department i.e. in this case a consultation. 

The publication of your personal data is lawful under article 6(1)(c) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation as it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which MHCLG is subject. The relevant legal obligation is the obligation in s197(8)(b) for the Secretary of State to publish each response to a consultation. 

Where necessary for the purposes of this consultation, our lawful basis for the processing of any special category personal data or criminal offence data (terms explained under ‘Sensitive Types of Data’) which you submit in response to this consultation is as follows. The relevant lawful basis for the processing of special category personal data is Article 9(2)(g) UK GDPR (‘substantial public interest’), and paragraph 6 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018 (‘statutory etc and government purposes’). The relevant lawful basis in relation to personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences data is likewise provided by paragraph 6 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018. 

4. With whom we will be sharing your personal data 

MHCLG may appoint a ‘data processor’, acting on behalf of the Department and under our instruction, to help analyse the responses to this consultation.  Where we do we will ensure that the processing of your personal data remains in strict accordance with the requirements of the data protection legislation. 

5. For how long we will keep your personal data, or criteria used to determine the retention period.  

Your personal data will be held for two years from the closure of the consultation, unless we identify that its continued retention is unnecessary before that point. 

6. Your rights, e.g. access, rectification, restriction, objection 

The data we are collecting is your personal data, and you have considerable say over what happens to it. You have the right: 

a. to see what data we have about you 

b. to ask us to stop using your data, but keep it on record 

c. to ask to have your data corrected if it is incorrect or incomplete 

d. to object to our use of your personal data in certain circumstances 

e. to lodge a complaint with the independent Information Commissioner (ICO) if you think we are not handling your data fairly or in accordance with the law.  You can contact the ICO at https://ico.org.uk/, or telephone 0303 123 1113.  

Please contact us at the following address if you wish to exercise the rights listed above, except the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO: dataprotection@communities.gov.uk or

Knowledge and Information Access Team
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Fry Building,
2 Marsham Street,
London
SW1P 4DF

7. Your personal data will not be sent overseas. 

8. Your personal data will not be used for any automated decision making. 

9. Your personal data will be stored in a secure government IT system. 

We use a third-party system, Citizen Space, to collect consultation responses. In the first instance your personal data will be stored on their secure UK-based server. Your personal data will be transferred to our secure government IT system as soon as possible, and it will be stored there for two years before it is deleted.

1. We are not changing the existing requirement that, where the rent for a Social Rent home exceeds the rent flexibility level, the rent may not increase each year by more than CPI. ↩

2. Registered provider social housing stock and rents in England 2023-24, Regulator of Social Housing. These figures exclude homes that are excepted from government rent policy. ↩

3. Registered provider social housing stock and rents in England 2023-24, Regulator of Social Housing. ↩ ↩²

4. See 2024 Global Accounts of private registered providers (Regulator of Social Housing) – see in particular paragraphs 5.23-5.24. ↩