Dear Angela Rayner,

G15 Residents’ Group is a newly formed independent group consisting of residents from the G15 housing associations. It is supported by the G15 and endorsed by its CEOs. Members are resident board members or engaged residents with lived experience of social housing and represent the views of the residents living in the 770,000 UK homes managed by the G15.

We agree with the proposal that rents should increase by CPI+1% per annum and believe that a 10-year settlement would be preferable.

The group is pleased to see Government’s proposals for a new, long-term rent settlement for the sector. As residents, it is a top priority for us that rent increases are kept to a reasonable and predictable level so that any increases are manageable. It is also critical that social landlords are adequately funded to be able to deliver good services and provide new homes for future generations, and we know they are heavily reliant on rental income in order to do this. The certainty that this settlement offers is therefore welcome.

Our concerns are that residents’ rent money is now expected to pay for a very wide range of landlords’ costs. It is right and fair that our rent contributes to the ongoing maintenance of our homes and the running of landlord services, but it cannot and should not cover everything. The social housing sector has been underfunded for decades by successive governments through policy omissions and failures. It should not be expected that existing tenant’s rents should be funding the damage caused by these failures.

On the specific proposals outlined in the consultation document, the majority of our members believe that a 10-year settlement would be preferable. Social landlords need stability and certainty to be able to set budgets and carry out financial planning. We also agree that more certainty over the longer term is a good thing for residents, many of whom face affordability challenges.

We do, however, believe it is essential that any rent settlement contains a mechanism to protect vulnerable residents who may face hardship in the event of an inflationary spike, especially the working poor and those on fixed incomes, who do not have access to the benefits system. Here, an absolute cap on rental increases would provide a safeguard against an inflationary shock for those who would struggle to afford it.

As a minimum, government should commit to consulting with residents’ groups if there is another spike in inflation, to properly understand the potential impact.

We believe that the rent proposal increase of CPI+1% per annum strikes the right balance between resident affordability and financial security for landlords. A steady and reliable increase in rental income is crucial for social landlords to be able to deliver decent services to residents, giving them financial certainty and allowing them to plan. It would also be a positive step towards allowing them to build their capacity to develop more social homes and help alleviate the housing crisis.

This rent policy settlement will go some way to providing the certainty landlords need to make much-needed progress on building safety remediation, improve resident services, and develop new homes. The G15 residents’ group did have serious concerns about the extent to which social landlords have become reliant on rental income to deliver their services. It is simply not right that existing social residents should have to plug the gaps in the housing system that have resulted from government policy failures. It is crucial that any decision to increase rents is accompanied with a proactive approach to supporting those at risk.

We would therefore strongly urge government to consider what other measures it could take to provide more financial security. We would particularly encourage government to increase grant funding to build new social homes; allow social landlords to access the building safety fund for rented homes; and increase the financial support available through the Warm Homes Fund.

The G15 RG takes note that the Government is not proposing to re-introduce rent convergence at this time. However, if the Government decided to review this policy in the future and seriously considered re-introduction, then we would strongly urge that a separate consultation is held with social housing residents.