Rent goes up for Sheffield Council tenants while hundreds of homes to be lost due to right-to-buy
Councillors have approved plans to increase rents by 2.7% from April
Council tenants in Sheffield will have to cough up more money as rents for a number of properties will increase later this year.
Sheffield City Council’s strategy and resources policy committee has decided to approve the recommendations to increase rent and service charges for council tenants from April.
As reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), the proposal included:
Rents for all council dwellings are increased by 2.7 per cent in line with the Regulator of Social Housing’s Rent Standard of September 2024’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) + 1%
Rents for temporary accommodation are increased by 2.7 per cent
Garage rents for garage plots and sites are increased by 2.7 per cent
The sheltered housing service charge is increased by 1.7 per cent
The burglar alarm charge is increased by 1.7 per cent
The furnished accommodation charge is increased by 1.7 per cent
The council’s Housing Revenue Account (HRA) business plan sets out how the estimated £187million income, predominately from tenant rents, will be spent on delivering repairs, capital improvements and tenant services to more than 38,000 council homes across the city during 2025/26.
At a strategy and resources policy meeting yesterday (January 22), Ajman Ali from Sheffield City Council told members that the additional revenue from rents and service charges would generate more than £5million.
He said some of this income would be used to invest into the repair service, deal with overdue works, provide additional capacity, tackle damp and mould, provide fire and gas safety works, electrical works and more.
Mr Ali said they expect to see a “net decrease” in the number of council homes over the next 30 years and also expect to lose around 800 homes to right-to-buy over the next 12 months.
During the discussion, Cllr Kurtis Crossland noted that the council had previously stated that it would reduce overdue housing repairs to zero by June this year “yet this report has no mention of that”.
He asked Mr Ali whether the council was still on target.
Mr Ali said they were working hard to reduce the numbers and the intention is there.