BRIEFING PAPER Number 01090, 11 March 2019 Rent setting: social By Wendy Wilson housing (England) Inside: 1. Rent restructuring and convergence under Labour 2. The Coalition Government’s rent policy 3. Summer Budget 2015: reducing rents by 1% 4. Affordable rents 5. ‘Pay to stay’ at market rents 6. Rent setting policy 2020-25 7. Alternative rent models www.parliament.uk/commons-library | intranet.parliament.uk/commons-library |
[email protected] | @commonslibrary Number 01090, 11 March 2019 2 Contents Summary 3 1. Rent restructuring and convergence under Labour 5 Rent setting 2008-09 and 2009-10 7 Rent setting 2010-11 10 2. The Coalition Government’s rent policy 15 2.2 Self-financing for local authority HRAs April 2012 15 2.3 Rent setting 2012-13 17 2.4 Rent setting 2013-14 17 2.5 A ten-year rent settlement from 2015 18 The end of convergence 19 Guidance on social housing rents from April 2015 24 Comment 25 3. Summer Budget 2015: reducing rents by 1% 26 Comment 27 4. Affordable rents 33 5. ‘Pay to stay’ at market rents 35 6. Rent setting policy 2020-25 37 7. Alternative rent models 39 A living rent? 39 Rent flexibility for housing associations? 39 Cover page image copyright: Wendy Wilson 3 Rent setting: social housing (England) Summary In 2002 the Labour Government introduced a rent convergence policy under which, over a ten-year period, rents in social housing (local authority and housing association owned stock) were to be brought into alignment. A rent formula was established with actual rents moving towards a national formula rent which took account of values of properties and local earnings relative to national earnings.