Purpose

To consider and agree the Crawley Homes annual
rent and service charge increase for 2024/25.

Content

Councillor I Irvine, Cabinet Member for
Housing, exercised their delegated authority on 15
January 2024 to approve the recommendation in the
Housing Revenue Account Property Portfolio
Rents for 2024/25 consideration report

CH/204 which was published in
Councillors’ Information Bulletin IB/1213 to:

Increase rents for
social and affordable dwelling rents by 7.7%
Increase rents for
shared ownership and hostels by 7.7%.
Increase service
charges as follows:

Accommodation
Type

Revised Service Charge

Current Service Charge

%
Increase

Enclosed Blocks (including
leaseholders)

£2.99

£2.67

12%

Hostels

£23.43

£18.01 (Bewbush Manor
£10.74)

30% (118%)

Milton Mount (including
leaseholders)

£6.23

£5.56

12%

Bridgefield House (leaseholders
only)

£6.05

£5.41

12%

Councillor Irvine took the
decision to limit service charge increases to 12% (for all
properties where service charges apply, except hostels) as he
deemed it was in the best interest of residents to limit the
increase.  Councillor Irvine decided to
increase service charges by 30% (118% Bewbush Manor) as it is
necessary to ensure services provided via the General Fund are
self-funding.

Councillor Irvine took the
decision to not take forward the introduction of cleaning and
laundry service charges for sheltered housing as he deemed
it was not in their best interests to take that
forward.

Further information was also
received before Councillor Irvine exercised their delegated
authority, the additional information refers to the Local Housing
Allowance (LHA) rate and the impact on Affordable Rents, as a
result it took longer for the decision to be taken and more time
was required to consider this new information.  The information provided is as follows:

Size of accommodation

Weekly amount

Indicative LHA
Rates

%
Increase

Shared

£101.61

109.62

7.88%

1

£172.60

197.92

14.67%

2

£218.63

253.15

15.79%

3

£276.16

314.14

13.75%

4

£356.71

402.74

12.90%

5

£356.71

402.74

12.90%

As a result of the above
information Councillor Irvine took the decision to increase
Affordable Rents by 7.7% (CPI + 1%) in line with all other rent
increases. 

Rental income has a significant
impact on the HRA business plan projections and the Council’s
ability to both maintain its existing stock, develop new properties
and plan for decarbonisation. Increasing rents by CPI + 1% ensures
we can continue to invest in Council stock.