CIH calls for ten-year social rent settlement

A ten-year social rent settlement would potentially generate an additional income of £5.6 billion for local authorities and £7.4 billion for housing associations over a decade, according to the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH).

In its response to the government’s consultation on future social housing rent policy, CIH cited analysis from Savills revealing that a social housing rent settlement of this length, set at CPI+1%, should also include “convergence” of rents for formula rents, otherwise, according to its members, all the additional capacity that a ten-year settlement would create would have to be invested in existing homes.

Convergence is the principle that people should pay similar rents for similar properties which remain significantly below market rates.

“Convergence is essential both to ensure fair and consistent rents and to create the capacity for the sector to achieve the government’s objectives,” CIH stated in its response.

It said achieving convergence within a ten-year rent settlement would increase the total additional rent income over ten years to £11.6 billion for local authorities and £10.7 billion for housing associations.

In its consultation, which closed on December 23, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) proposed a settlement …