This survey is closed.
Due to increasing demand for housing support, rising costs and capped rents, the council is facing significant financial pressures. To meet these pressures the council is continuing to focus on being more efficient and is planning to reduce its investment in new build housing. However, these measures alone are not enough, so the council is also considering increasing rent and reducing the service offer to tenants.
The rent you pay as a Central Bedfordshire Council tenant is used to fund repairs and also to provide new homes so that we can provide our tenants with the best quality of home possible. Housing rent can only be used to pay for housing, we cannot use it to pay for other council services, so every penny you pay is reinvested in housing. The budget is called the Housing Revenue Account (HRA).
Since 2016, the Government has enforced rent cuts and capped rent increases. Whilst this has benefitted tenants, it means that the council’s income has dropped significantly by £23.5m between 2016 and 2023.
This reduced income, coupled with increasing demand for housing support - we’ve seen a 100 per cent increase in residents becoming homeless in the last year - and rising maintenance costs and inflation means the council is facing huge financial pressures. We have seen the cost of repairs increase by 59% between 2016 and 2023.
We know putting rent up and reducing our offer to tenants is not ideal, particularly when our tenants are already struggling with other increasing costs.
The council is committed to providing value for money to its residents and tenants and before deciding to increase rents, other options have been considered.
The Housing services has been focussed on improving efficiency and making the most of the HRA budget for years and has a good track record of doing this. The proposed HRA budget includes some further efficiencies to improve productivity, which are mostly related to using technology to enable digital access to services which reduces the need for staff to manually process information.
Along with maintaining council homes, we also need to invest in new homes too so that we continue to increase the number of homes available to meet the rising demand, offset properties sold through the Right to Buy, improve the quality of council housing and provide specialist transitional, accessible or supported accommodation. The council is predicted to have 5,628 homes in its stock by the end of March 2024. The proposed plans will see 5,812 homes by the end of March 2028.
In the current economic climate of relatively high interest rates, the council’s new build programme has been reduced by £50M to avoid incurring high borrowing costs at this time. The plan still includes a substantial target of 264 new homes over the next four years, whilst the level of investment in the repair and maintenance of tenant’s homes has been sustained at current levels.
In 2024/25, we plan to spend £15.6m on a range of new homes and £13m on a new independent living scheme in Steppingley Road, Flitwick. Independent living schemes are designed specifically for older people and this scheme will create 88 homes. Providing accommodation for older people that enables them to maintain their independence but have on-site support should they need it means they release their family homes into the housing market which all helps to meet the demand for homes, especially from homeless families.
Unfortunately, improving efficiency and reducing borrowing costs are not enough to meet the forecast costs of the housing service. Therefore, the proposals also include increasing rents and reducing the service to tenants.
Council rents are currently, on average, circa 40 per cent of rents in the private rented sector. Government guidance states rents should rise in line with the Consumer Price Index (6.7 per cent) plus 1 per cent. We are proposing to increase rents by 7.7 per cent as per the Government guidance. This equates to an increase of £8.84 per week for social rent and a £14.90 increase per week for affordable rent.
This increase is necessary to be able to maintain our current properties – your homes – to ensure they are safe, comfortable and in good condition. As a sample of our capital investment plan, we plan to spend:
- £3.3m on roof replacements
- £280,000 on asbestos management
- £90,000 on new windows
- £1.1m on fire and safety precautions
The HRA budget includes a 9 per cent reduction in staffing over a two-year period (2025/27) delivering an annual saving of £0.97M. This equates to 20 full time equivalents. Reducing staffing will mean and all-round reduction in service. It is most likely that tenants will have to wait longer to speak to a housing officer and ill have less time with a housing officer to help them with individual issues. It’s important you complete the feedback survey and tell us which parts of the housing service you think should be protected from reductions.
More information and a full breakdown is available on our website.
To find out more you can speak to someone from the team at these locations:
- 4 January 2024: The Birches, Hitchin Road, Shefford 1:30pm to 3:30pm
- 8 January 2024: Priory View, Chruch Street, Dunstable 11:30am to 1pm
- 10 January 2024: Tudor Court, Leighton Buzzard 9:30am to 11:30am
- 11 January 2024: All Saints View, Houghton Regis 6pm to 8pm
On the 11 January 2024, we will be holding a virtual between 6:45pm to 8pm To find out how to join, email: involvementandengagement@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk.