How rents are set...

Published: 5th August, 2010

• CONTRARY to the letter (Tenants can’t afford this, July 22) Origin Housing is not “setting a rent rise of £20 per week for all secure tenants”.

In the case of the tenant who wrote to the editor, her weekly rent has increased by £5.85 per week, an increase frozen for two years.

She is one of a minority of “secure” tenants whose rents are set by the government’s Valuation Office Agency, which recommended that the rent be set higher than we did.

Origin, as all housing associations, sets an annual rent increase for most tenants according to a government-set formula based on the rate of inflation in the previous year.

In fact rent increases for most tenants this year were extremely low due to the low Retail Price Index last year.

On average, the rent increase for Origin tenants this year was about 40p per week.

Many tenants also pay a service charge to cover the cost of certain communal facilities.

This has actually gone down this year, for as many tenants as have had an increase, due to changes in energy costs.

Origin takes the provision of affordable housing very seriously and always fully considers the low incomes of our tenants when setting rents and service charges each year.

Origin also provides free advice and help to tenants on very low incomes so they can get all the benefits they are entitled to, keep up to date with their rent and keep free from debt.

It would save a lot of confusion for your readers if your colleagues could check these facts before publication.

PHILIPPA OLDMEADOW
Assistant Director Housing & Commercial Services
Origin Housing