2019 / 2020 Rent Increase Announcement

Announcement regarding 2019 rent increase.

The management committee of Wellhouse Housing Association approved a rent increase of 3.4% on 31 January 2019, following consultation with tenants. The increase was needed to ensure we can continue to invest and improve in your homes and the estate, repay the private finance borrowed over the years to build new homes and deliver the services required to you. The committee had been considering the proposed increase since November and we have been consulting tenants since December 2018.

We know that many of you did not personally support the increase. However, we had to balance the need for funding new kitchen, bathrooms, boilers, etc. in order to ensure your homes are kept to a good standard. We understand that many of our tenants want more information on our spending and that you are concerned about rising rents. We will be posting information on what the rental income pays for and the impact on that if we are unable to raise funds to manage and reinvest in your homes.

All tenants will receive an individual letter in due course and we have advised Housing Benefit of the increases.

We will begin consultation on next year’s rent and Wellhouse HA’s finances as early as this month, when the Tenant Participation Advisory Service will run open session for us in the Hub. We will then survey tenants around August/ September to find out what impact the rent increase had on your household bills and begin the formal process with committee in October 2019.

Actual impact of proposed increase. NB including the 3^rd (final) year of the rent harmonisation