Housing budgets survey
We make decisions each year about how much rent to charge council tenants, and how much we'll ask tenants to pay in service charges. Tenants pay rent and service charges together, but they are set separately and fund separate elements of the services we provide.
Rent and these service charges are all eligible for Housing Benefit and Universal Credit. Around 70% of tenants receive full or partial Housing Benefit which would also, either fully or partially, cover any increases to rent or these service charges.
How the housing budget is spent
Rent payments
Rents pay for:
- repairs and fire safety (including responsive and reactive repairs, resident safety, asset management costs and disrepair costs)
- capital investment (money invested into properties to offset wear and tear on our buildings. This fund contributes to major works in the future)
- interest charges (the cost of money we've previously borrowed)
- management costs (including salaries of housing services staff)
- provision for bad debts (money set aside in case rent is not paid)
- all other housing-related costs (setting aside money for unexpected costs in reserve and overheads)
Tenant service charges
Tenant service charges pay for:
- caretaking (including estate management)
- grounds maintenance
- Responsive Housing Patrol
- CCTV on estates
- communal lighting
- communal mechanical and electrical (M&E) maintenance
Power is the cost of gas and electricity for the heating pool, metered heating and leaseholders heating and electricity costs. This is billed via heating scales, leaseholder charges and metered charges to tenants. There are also other service charges, such as for sheltered and hostel residents.
There are also a range of fees and charges within Housing which residents will pay if they use them, such as garages, parking spaces, sheds, allotments, and key and fob replacements. A decision on changes to these fees is also taken at Cabinet. It is recommended that many of these increase by Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation of 3.5%, including tenant garages. For example, a tenant garage charged at £20 per week in 2026/27 would increase by 70p.
Budget challenges
The Council faces a challenging financial context in both its Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and General Fund. We estimate that the General Fund will need to have achieved £85 million to £90 million of savings by the end of our next 3 year Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) in 2029/30, with £65 million of savings required in 2027/28.
HRAs across the country have been struggling to set balanced budgets for a number of years. Much of this is due to a range of reasons, including:
- spikes in inflation and interest rates
- the increased demand from repairs which comes with a large, aging portfolio
- a more robust regulatory regime following the tragedies of the Grenfell Tower fire and the death of Awaab Ishak
Equally, over the last decade the government has imposed restrictions on the ability of HRAs to raise income through rents (including 4 consecutive years of rent reductions from 2016/17 to 2019/20). This prevented HRAs from being able to respond to rising costs. The government has launched a new 10-year rent settlement and reintroduced rent convergence (find more information under 'Proposed rent increase'), which is a crucial tool in helping councils respond to some of these pressures.
While the rent settlement and convergence are very important, they will take many years to fully materialise and undo the impacts of historic government decisions. This means that the HRA has a budget gap to close. Over the 3-year period of the next MTFS from 2027/28-2029/30, the Council will need to make £8 million to £12 million of savings within the Housing Revenue Account. This is to ensure that income from rents and service charges is enough to cover the costs of delivering our landlord functions. This assumes that we will increase rents by the maximum allowable amount each year and seek full cost recovery on its charges for services as far as possible.
Survey
We're running a survey to ask you:
- what you think about the proposed rent increase and how it would affect your household
- what services are important to you and what services could be reduced
- how you think the council could save more money.
Your answers will help inform the decisions made by Cabinet when setting 2027/28 HRA budgets, and influence the shape of our services and how much we charge tenants over the medium term.
Proposed rent increase
We are proposing to increase rent payments in line with the maximum allowable under the government determined Rent Standard. This is the rate of CPI inflation of 3.5% plus 1%, plus up to an additional £1 per week for properties paying less than formula rent. Formula rent is effectively a calculation of social rent based on property valuation, local earnings levels and bedroom size, and is subject to the rent caps.
This is what the increase would mean for average homes which are subject to rent convergence:
- rent for an average 1 bedroom home would go up by £7.13 per week
- rent for an average 2 bedroom home would go up by £7.94 per week
- rent for an average 3 bedroom home would go up by £8.74 per week
Service charges
It's important that the service charges paid by tenants cover the full cost of delivering those services. The cost of delivering services has been going up, and there is no other source of money to help pay for them.
If we want to keep offering the same level of services then we have to increase service charges to cover the increased cost. However, over the medium term there is also the option to keep service charges lower by reducing the level of service provided.
We want to hear from you about:
- what services you value most
- which services you want to keep as they are
- any services you think should be cut back
Sharing your priorities with us will help us understand how best to provide the services you really need, and how to keep your service charges as low as possible over the medium term, while ensuring that we can fully cover the costs of delivering them.
How to respond
There are 3 ways you can respond to the survey. If you need this information or the survey in a different format, email [email protected].
The deadline for responses is Tuesday 15 December.
Respond online
Respond in writing
Write your response, then post or deliver it to:
- Camden Town Hall
5 Judd Street
London
WC1H 9JE
Any response is welcome. If you want guidance, open the online survey to find the questions we're asking.
Respond in person
Visit our Neighbourhood Action Day at Pancras Square Library on Wednesday 25 November, from 11am to 2pm.