About Local Rents

Back in 2020 the Welsh Government requested all Registered Social Landlords in Wales introduce new local rent policies to ensure rents are fair and affordable for all tenants.

The same year, as part of our annual Rent Review we created a survey and undertook a tenant consultation to ensure everybody had a chance to have their say. Over 1,800 tenants responded and the key themes tenants wanted us to consider were property type, number of bedrooms and location. Tenants didn’t feel we should charge a higher rent on new properties.

We took the feedback on board, as well as research by other leading housing organisations and created a ‘Local Rent Setting Policy’ which is a much fairer way to set rents, ensuring affordability for all our tenants. This new approach enables us to be more transparent with how we set rent, whilst continuing to deliver the top-quality services expected by our tenants.

We realise the setting of rents can be complex, so we will try and keep the explanation simple.

We consider a wide range of information when setting rents:

• Tenant feedback on affordability
• Obligations to Welsh Government related to rent setting – you can find out more via this link.
• MHA’s financial business plan and annual budget setting
• MHA’s rent setting policy
• Analysis of current rents using affordability tests such as analysis of local income and earnings levels and analysis of local market rents
• Property type / size / location
• Applicable service charges

The model works on the principle it’s unaffordable for tenants on a low income to spend more than a third of their income on their rent and that maintaining a link between rent setting and affordability is critical for social rents.

MHA’s Local Rent Policy does not apply to intermediate and market rent properties.

It depends, some tenants will see an increase in their weekly rent in line with the Welsh Government guidelines, and some tenants will have no increase on their rent this year. This will depend on how near to the newly calculated Local Rent your current rent is.

Our goal is that eventually every rent will be set at the Local Rent levels. But if your rent is above the calculated rent you will receive no rental increases until the figures match, this could happen in one year or even take several. Any changes to your rent will be payable from 1st April each year and are outlined in your letter from our Chief Executive.

• Building more affordable homes to rent and buy
• Continue to invest in services that meet tenants’ needs
• A reliable, responsive repairs service available 365 days a year
• Budgeting and benefits advice for those experiencing difficulties managing money and plenty of job advice and training opportunities, to help people into work
• Maintaining and improving our existing homes including environmental projects that will improve our communities, whilst reducing our carbon footprint