Consultation outcome

Social housing rents consultation

From:
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Published
31 August 2022
Last updated
14 December 2022 — See all updates

Applies to England

This consultation has concluded

Download the full outcome

Social housing rents: government response to the consultation

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Detail of outcome

This document reports the outcome of the consultation on a proposed Direction to the Regulator of Social Housing (‘the Regulator’) on social housing rents from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.

Following the consultation, a new Direction from the Secretary of State is being issued to the Regulator to ensure that, from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, the Regulator’s rent standard:

  • Makes the CPI+1% limit on annual rent increases subject to a 7% ceiling. This ceiling would apply to both Social Rent and Affordable Rent homes;
  • Applies an exception to the 7% ceiling for supported housing;
  • Does not apply the 7% ceiling to the maximum initial rent that may be charged when Social Rent and Affordable Rent properties are first let and subsequently re-let.

The Direction, cited as the Direction on the Rent Standard 2023, will operate alongside the existing Direction on the Rent Standard 2019.

See the Direction on the Rent Standard 2023 and policy statement on rents for social housing.

Feedback received

Social housing rents consultation full responses

PDF, 53.8 MB, 976 pages

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Social housing rents consultation responses

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 399 KB

Detail of feedback received

Copies of all written responses are available to download above.

Original consultation

Summary

We are seeking views on a new Direction to the Regulator of Social Housing in relation to social housing rent policy from 1 April 2023.

This consultation ran from
to

Consultation description

We are seeking views on a draft Direction to the Regulator of Social Housing. The Direction would require the Regulator to set a regulatory standard on rents that will apply to Registered Providers of social housing. This encompasses:

  • Private Registered Providers (including housing associations)
  • 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. The proposed Direction has been published alongside this consultation.

Documents

Social housing rents

HTML

Annex B: Draft Direction on the Rent Standard

PDF, 146 KB, 2 pages

Annex C: Draft policy statement on rents for social housing

PDF, 721 KB, 25 pages

Annex D: Impact assessment - social housing rents consultation

PDF, 386 KB, 22 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@levellingup.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.
Published 31 August 2022
Last updated 14 December 2022 + show all updates

  1. Added consultation responses and government response.

  2. First published.

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