Rents for Social Housing from 2020-21

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The government has published a consultation on its social housing rent policy from 2020.

The document reflects the government announcement in October 2017 of the intention to permit registered providers to increase their rents by up to CPI+1% each year, for a period of at least 5 years.

For the first time, the government intends to direct the Regulator to apply its rent standard to all registered providers – i.e. to both local authority registered providers and private registered providers.  Bringing local authority landlords within the scope of the RSH rent standard will respond to the roll out of Universal Credit.

The consultation also proposes changes to how “formula rent” is calculated and the rules around affordable rent – such as preventing social landlords from resetting annual rents by more than CPI+1% when re-letting a home to the existing tenant.

In its assessment of the impact of the new rent policy, the government states “Five policy options were considered ranging from permitting an annual increase of up to CPI+2% through to the continuation of the 1% rent reduction.  The preferred option is CPI+1%. This option is neutral in terms of delivery of affordable homes”.

The new policy will come into effect from 1 April 2020. It will not override landlords’ statutory obligation to complete the four year social rent reduction as required by the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016. Where a landlord has not completed the social rent reduction by 31 March 2020 (because its rent year begins after 1 April), it must complete the reduction before the applying the new policy.

The consultation available here closes on 8 November.  If you are responding to the consultation, it would be helpful  if you could provide us with a copy of your consultation response to help with our deliberations.

Have you considered pre-owned licences for your organisation?

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ValueLicensing are pre-owned Microsoft licencing specialists based in the UK. We support both the Private and Public Sector to save up to 70% on their licensing requirements. For over nine years, 3,300 businesses throughout the UK and Europe have benefited from purchasing pre-owned licences from ValueLicensing, representing a total saving in excess of £20 Million. We have extensive knowledge of the niche market in which we operate.

The most important aspect in the procurement of pre-owned Microsoft software licences is our due diligence processes to verify that the licences are compliant with the EU Software Directive and SAM (Software Asset Management) audit requirements. Our Procurement team at ValueLicensing undertake this thorough due diligence process prior to each and every purchase. They handle all the complexities for our clients who are purchasing pre-owned licensing from us. Upon completion of an order, all customers will receive a “Software Licence Pack” containing all of the required documentation to prove legal ownership, providing peace of mind and compliance in the event of a SAM (Software Asset Management) audit.

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Derwent Living were recently supported by ValueLicensing to complete a purchase for a large quantity of pre-owned software licences. The case study demonstrates the simple process, solutions and benefits experienced by Derwent Living. Read the Case Study Derwent Living.

Andrew Meikle, Account Manager, Value Licencing

NHC consults with members on the social housing green paper

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Along with the rest of the sector the Northern Housing Consortium had been anticipating the publication of a Social Housing Green Paper for some time.  So, when the document was finally released on 14th August, it was important for the NHC to bring members together and take full advantage of the opportunity to give detailed feedback to Government on what the Secretary of State described as a “landmark opportunity for major reform”.

Consultation Roundtables were arranged for each region of the North which drew around 50 attendees.  Karen Brown, Senior Policy Adviser at the Northern Housing Consortium provided an update on the Green Paper and highlighted that the door was now open for considerable debate on a range of issues – empowering residents and tackling stigma, resolving complaints and ensuring homes are safe and decent, through to expanding supply and development opportunities.

The evidence collected will be used as the basis of the NHC’s response to the Green Paper and members provided many points of discussion.  Organisations were keen to emphasise the work that is consistently completed to ensure homes are safe and to meet the Decent Homes Standard.  Overall the feeling was that health and safety regimes are robust; the issue at hand was more about ensuring consistency and clarity in the regulations which are currently complex and contradictory.    On mediation and resolving disputes, some members felt that, while there have been consistent improvements, that this is an opportunity to look at all good practice but that changes need to be proportionate and to manage expectations.   Considering the Government’s proposals on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to be published through League Tables, members felt that the implementation and use of a basket of measures would be most usefully linked to improvements measured through a structured plan so that outcomes were transparent for residents.  Some of the indicators proposed will be difficult to measure and a more nuanced and partnership approach may be required.  There was consensus that KPI’s would be affected by local circumstances and this would have to be sufficiently taken into account.

The meetings reflected the NHC’s earlier assertion that there is much in the detail that is welcome: the focus on decent homes, thriving communities and reversing the decline in council housing all of which reflect calls the NHC has been making for some time.  There are of course areas that may be of concern in the Green Paper and it will be interesting to see how the proposals on a new regulatory framework, the funding for supply of homes for social rent, and continued emphasis on home ownership are all evolved.

The Government has stated that it intends that the Green Paper will generate “a nationwide conversation on social housing”.   Through these roundtables and other engagement, the NHC is  working with politicians and civil servants to ensure a strong Northern voice is part of this conversation.  We would encourage our members to engage constructively in the debate that follows the Green Paper.