Star date: 28th January 2015

SALIX AND PENDLETON TOGETHER TENANTS GET HAMMERED WITH RENT RISES - AGAIN

With the current rate of inflation running at 0.5%, tenants of Salix and Pendleton Together face rent rises of 2.2% in 2015-16, which will add almost £7 a month to bills. This comes on top of 17.3% rent rises seen over the last three years.

Meanwhile, service charges for both housing providers will `reflect the actual costs of providing those services', so some tenants will see decreases while others will see whopping increases.

Full details here...

Salford council housing tenants are about to get battered financially again following years of rising rents and service charges.

Even though by the new financial year the Council is unlikely to own any social housing, having transferred its stock to Salix Homes, it is still setting the rents and service charges for 2015-16 as the properties are currently in its ownership. And it is still setting rents for Pendleton Together.

Rent rises being proposed from April will be 2.2%, even though the current rate of inflation is 0.5% and public sector employees are having to cope with 1% pay increases. This comes on top of 17.3% rent rises over the past three years (2012/13 – 7.62% rise; 2013/14 – 4.55%; 2014/15 – 5.13%) as the Government has gone for a policy of `convergence' (converging all social rents in an area) (see previous Salford Star article - click here).

For 2015-16 the Government has ditched this `convergence' policy and is enforcing annual rent increases in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as of the previous
September plus 1%. The CPI back in September 2014 was 1.2%.

The average rises for Pendleton Together properties will be £1.70 per week on a 48 week basis, and £1.57 on a 52 week basis. For Salix properties the rise is £1.79 per week on a 48 week basis and £1.65 on a 52 week basis.

Meanwhile service charge changes will vary all over the place to `reflect the actual costs of providing those services'. Salix service charges will tend to decrease slightly, reflecting lower energy costs amongst other things, while service charges in some Pendleton Together properties increase by up to 20%.

People in sheltered accommodation will see average service charge increases of almost 10%, or £1.66 per week; those in Salix Court will see a rise of £2.74 per week, and tenants in Whitebeam Court will see a rise of £2.61 a week. While the majority of tenants will see service charge rises, people living in Tunbridge Square will see bills drop by £5.47 a week.

These rent and service charge rises are for existing tenants but a Salford Council report warns that, where a property is re-let, rent could increase even further via the change to `formula rent'.

Once Salix gets the properties in its ownership completely, it will set its own rent in line with Government policy but service charges remain the unknown quantity as they will continue to `reflect the actual costs of providing those services'...