Following 2 years of consultation on our rent setting processes and rent structure, the Association has issued correspondence to advise tenants on our proposals for rent charges for 2020/21 and what this means for them individually. This correspondence was issued 10 December 2019 seeking views by 14 January 2020.
The Association has been undertaking a rent restructure review in consultation with our tenants since 2018. The final version of this was issued to all tenants in October and the feedback to this was all very positive – thank you to everyone who came back to us with their views.
The new rent structure calculates rents on the basis of points value, with a baseline having any attributes added as appropriate to the individual property. Any separate charge for items individual to a specific tenant is then charged on top of this. So for each property the charge will be individual to what that property and tenant has.
The Association must set our rental income requirements to ensure we have funds to meet our short, medium and long term budgets, to ensure that the Association remains financially viable in the long term and can continue to provide the best standard of service for our customers. The Association tries to keep rents as low as possible while still making sure there is sufficient funds to cover all current costs and to put money aside for future maintenance and improvement works.
Many of the costs faced by the Association are set to rise in excess of inflation rates, for example, maintenance costs. There is also the unknown impact on costs of Brexit. These factors have a direct input into the amount by which income requires to be increased. The Association works hard to ensure that all operational costs are tightly managed and controlled. As such, we are trying to increase our income in 2020/21 by 1.5% only.
Due to the new rent structure being implemented, there will not be a uniform % change for all tenants. Instead each tenant will have an increase on the basis of the new structure and this could range for £0.00 per month to £19.58 per month. However, the Association has restricted the maximum increase to £10.00 per month, and the new structure rents for these properties will be phased in over a few years.
The overall breakdown of what increases tenants will have are as given below:
|
Per Month Increase |
No of tenants |
|
£0.00 |
51 |
|
Up to £5.00 |
295 |
|
Between £5.01 and £6.00 |
33 |
|
Between £6.01 and £7.00 |
57 |
|
Between £7.01 and £8.00 |
4 |
|
Between £8.01 and £9.00 |
7 |
|
Between £9.01 and £10.00 |
85 |
|
Total |
532 |
Our Rent Structure Leaflet for 2020/21 (Dec 2019) details the points for each attribute in a property and the monthly charge per point for 2020/21 = £19.42.
This will allow the calculation of the rent for each property by calculating the points for a property and multiplying this with the monthly charge per point. The charge for a property may have been restricted if it would result in an increase of more than £10.00 from the existing rent.
Affordability and Comparability
All the Association’s current rents pass the Scottish Federation of Housing Association (SFHA) affordability test and average rents compare well with other local rents and the Scottish average rents, as shown in our annual Charter Report.
In line with our Value for Money Statement (Dec 2019) the Association will continue to review our costs to identify any further possible efficiencies to help us to keep rent increases as low as we can.
Please Let Us Know Your Views
We are keen to hear our tenants’ views on the rent proposals that will take effect from 1st April 2020. If you are a tenant please complete and return the consultation survey issued to let us know your views, or
- Complete online - Pineview 2020 Tenant Rent Charges Consultation
- Telephone our office and ask a staff member to complete with you.
- Call into the office and speak to a member of staff.
- Write into the office at 5 Rozelle Avenue.
- email: mail@pineview.org.uk.
Closing date for responses is noon on Tuesday 14 January 2020