Social housing: Rents and charges
Information about basic rents and charges for social housing.
Basic rents
The basic rent for council properties for new tenancies from 1 April 2024 are as follows:
Social housing: Basic rents from 1 April 2024
| Type of property | Basic rent |
|---|
| Bedsit |
£81.57 per week |
| 1 bed flat / maisonette |
£91.77 per week |
| 2 bed flat / maisonette |
£101.97 per week |
| 3 bed flat / maisonette |
£112.17 per week |
| 1 bed house / bungalow |
£101.44 per week |
| 2 bed house / bungalow |
£112.70 per week |
| 3 bed house / bungalow |
£123.97 per week |
| 4 bed house / bungalow |
£135.25 per week |
| 5 bed house / bungalow |
£146.51 per week |
| 6 bed house / bungalow |
£156.76 per week |
| 7 bed house / bungalow |
£166.17 per week |
Your basic rent will cover the costs of repairs and planned maintenance, plus the costs of managing your tenancy.
Basic rents for garages
Basic rents for garages from 1 April 2024:
Basic rents for garages from 1 April 2024
| Garage (for council tenants) |
£8.82 per week |
|---|
| Garage (for non-council tenants) |
£10.58 per week |
|---|
Service charges
Your council property may receive services that are subject to a charge. These are called service charges, and you will be charged for them in addition to your basic rent. You should pay service charges as part of your rent payment.
Service charges could be one or more of the following:
- lighting and heating in communal areas
- fixture and fitting improvements in communal areas
- laundry facilities
- installing, monitoring and servicing CCTV cameras
- monitoring and servicing door entry systems
- monitoring and servicing fire safety equipment in communal areas
- cleaning communal areas and communal window cleaning
- grounds maintenance on your estate, including play areas, grass, trees, shrubs, flower beds, hard standing and pathways, litter picking
- water and sewage for communal areas
- management charge for administering service charges
Under current Housing Benefit regulations, all of these service charges qualify for Housing Benefit. They are also eligible as part of the Housing Costs Element of Universal Credit.
Individual water, heating and sewage charges do not qualify under either Housing Benefit or Universal Credit.
You will be able to see on your bill how much you are paying towards the cost of services you receive. For example, you will be able to see how much of your weekly payment goes on cleaning, electricity or heating to communal areas, and how much on the grounds maintenance in your communal garden or on the estate where you live.
Will I have to pay service charges?
If you have shared or communal facilities, you will have to pay service charges. If you live in a property with no shared or additional services, and we don't maintain any communal grounds outside your property or on your estate, you will not have to pay any service charges.
You cannot opt out of paying service charges, or of receiving the services that are provided. Service charge costs are fixed every year.
How do we calculate service charges?
We will calculate your service charges each year by taking into account the actual costs of providing the service and a management charge of 15%. The cost of providing services at a particular block, complex or other communal or estate area will be evenly shared between all the tenants living there.
More information
View more information about our rents and frequently asked questions (external website)