Secretary of State Sajid Javid is reported as saying that
housing associations and councils can expect consultations the
government's rent policy post 2020 "very, very soon".
The government's previous 10 year social rent policy introduced
in May 2014 was summarily scrapped by former Chancellor George
Osborne in the Summer Budget of 2015 and councils and housing
associations have seen a huge reduction in rental income as a result of
the 4 years of mandatory year on year 1% rent reductions up to 2020
imposed by the Welfare Reform & Work Act 2016 with ongoing
uncertainty about future rent policy.
However the government's Housing White Paper, launched in February this
year, promised to set out, following consultation, a rent policy
for housing associations and local authorities for the period
beyond 2020 but no timetable has been published for consultation on
the new social rent policy although it is widely expected that the
government may make some announcement on future policy at the
forthcoming Autumn Budget on 22 November 2017.
The Secretary of State was addressing delegates at the launch of
a report on housing need in the north, and pledged to settle the
question of what will happen to social landlords' rents after 2020
and is reported as saying: "We said we'd consult and then set
out a formula. We're going to do that very, very soon."
Together with our colleagues in the National Federation of Almos
(NFA) and Councils with Almos Group (CWAG) we have been consulting our members' views on future rent
policy with a view to making representations to Treasury in advance
of the Autumn Budget. To further inform our case, the ARCH Board
has also agreed to jointly commission further research into the
economic impact of policy options for social rents after 2020 with
the Local Government Association (LGA) and SHOUT.