Don’t worry, your rent won’t be changing until April, as normal.
But we held a consultation about rents in November. Thank you to those involved; it was good to speak to you in more detail. Something the customers involved said would be helpful would be to know about any changes a bit earlier. To give you more time to plan.
Here's how your rent will change and what to do if you're worried about paying for rent or any of your other bills (food, fuel, energy, etc).
This year, your rent will go up by 4.1%.
For example:
None of us look forward to prices going up. We don’t make a profit, but rents go up with inflation as materials, goods, etc. cost us more. We also don’t choose the amount. Rents are going up by CPI + 1%: the Government decides this figure (your tenancy agreement also explains more on this).
But we know you’re facing other bills, so deciding what to do about rents this year was a tough decision. In the November consultation, we set out what would happen if we did or didn’t put our rents up. Our Chief Exec asked for your feedback. Click here to find out more
Your new rent will start from 4 April. You’ll get a letter in late Feb / early March with a breakdown of your charges, plus advice on what you need to do next.
BUT this only applies to rent. If you also pay service charges, these are calculated differently. They’re based on how much we spent last year. Click here to find out more about service charges.
We can’t tell you your exact rent any earlier than this – but if you already have worries about paying rent (or any of your other bills) please don’t wait to talk to us.
It probably feels like a lot coming from different directions at the moment - but it doesn't have to be all on you.
Don’t struggle on your own. There’s lots of support out there and we can point you in the right direction. But it’s better to contact us now, before things mount up, and we might be able to help save you some stress.
FAQs
CPI stands for consumer price index.
It's the official measure for inflation in the UK.
Inflation the general rise in prices (of everything, not just one product). Things get naturally more expensive over time. CPI is a measure of roughly how much everything has increased in price. This year, it's set at 3.1%.
If you're going to struggle, there are lots of things we can do to help.
It's been a tough two years for some families, so we are offering support. Just drop us a line, let us know what you're up against and we will make a plan with you. Click here to talk to us
How much rent we charge has an impact on the services we can/can't provide, which is why we did a consultation on rents this year.
The feedback we got was that, although nobody wanted a rent increase, they didn't want our standards to go down.
Our biggest cost is around repairs and maintenance (for every £1 rent, we spent over a third on maintenance).
Nothing just yet.
- If you're on Universal Credit, you'll need to log into your journal and update it with your new rent. Remember to do this on 4 April, but not before (we'll text you to remind you).
- If you're on Housing Benefit, and it's paid to you, you'll need to contact the benefits' office to let them know.
- For those in Broxbourne, you can email benefits@broxbourne.gov.uk.
- If your benefits are paid directly to us or if you're on a direct debit, you won't need to do anything.
But it is worth checking your budget. If your new rent is going to make things tight, please contact us and we may be able to help.
There can be different rents for different homes on the same estate.
Most new B3Living homes are rented at 80% market prices. Sometimes we get grant finding which allow us to charge a lower rent (60%) on some homes within the same estate.
This is why we do a check with you before you move. We try to make sure you can afford the home you're nominated for. Your neighbour's situation might be very different to yours.
It's likely that there will also be people on your estate, or nearby, renting from a private landlord who pay more again.
We get that paying a different rate to your neighbour won't seem fair. But there are a lot of things behind the scenes which affect how much rent we charge for each home. Often it isn't possible to charge everyone the same amount.
Service charges are separate from your rent, so they’re not necessarily going up by 4.1%.
Service charges change based on what we spent last year and what we know is coming up. It varies from service to service. They can go up, down or stay roughly the same.
But we have a ‘keeping things affordable’ cap. To make sure our charges stay affordable, we make sure they don’t increase by more than £3 per week. If your charges would’ve gone over this, you’ll see a line in your breakdown where we remove the rest.