Highland Council proposes the biggest rent hike in a decade of 8% saying the extra £372 more a year will have ‘minimal’ impact on tenants
Highland Council has said the proposed doubling of rent for the second year running - eight per cent this year on top of 7.95 per cent last year - is likely to have "minimal" impact despite tenants “expressing concern about affordability issues”.
The local authority claimed it had among the lowest rents for social housing in the country even including the latest plan to rise, which is the equivalent to an average of £372.84 a year more or £7.17 a week.
Council bosses has been consulting a potential 10 per cent hike but that was reduced to eight per cent, which still marks the highest since incremental increases going back to 2013.
An official report to the housing and property committee confirms the recommendation to raise rents but that councillors will have to agree for it to come into effect in April.
The move was proposed despite rent arrears totalling almost £4.5 million in 2023/2024 - it had initially been reported as £3.3 million - which means that about 7.16 per cent of rent due was unpaid.
There are three key considerations in arriving at the decision. The need to balance the Housing Revenue Account budget; commitments to deliver housing that supports communities and economic growth; and crucially the impact on tenants.
Those most affected will be tenants and an integrated impact assessment found that “tenants have expressed their concern about affordability issues”.
But the local authority decided the impact would be “minimal” because “Highland Council rents remain well below the national average for social landlords and significantly below private rented sector rents”.
It continued that “established processes are in place to support tenants through income maximisation, benefit awards, and through the Rent Arrears Management Policy”.
Brian Cameron, strategic lead - housing and building maintenance, said: “In setting council house rents, there needs consideration of the requirement to set a Housing Revenue Account budget, where expenditure and income are balanced.
“This means any increase in the cost of delivering housing services, such as increase in staffing and supplier costs, need to be balanced by increased rent and other income generated from HRA assets.
“This also needs to be seen alongside the need to invest in existing housing stock which has been identified as a core priority of tenants.”
The housing and property committee will meeting on 29 January.
