Rent Increase Consultation 25/26

Yorkhill Housing Association is currently reviewing its budget for the next financial year, 2025/26, and the rent charge for our homes is part of this review.

Our rents continue to be among the lowest in the West End of Glasgow, and compare very favourably against other housing associations in the area. We will always aim to keep these rents as low as possible, however like everyone else our costs go up with inflation and we must increase rent charges to cover these costs.

We will always try to find the right balance between rent affordability and the need to maintain our services and continue investing in our homes. This includes things like replacing kitchens and bathrooms and further improving the energy efficiency of our homes to help limit your energy costs, and to provide services such as stair cleaning and welfare and money advice.

In the last few months we have introduced a funded pilot scheme where we have temporarily employed two Estate Caretakers and a Clerical Assistant. Our initial experiences have been very positive and we are undergoing a review to establish if this service is something we should keep long-term. We feel that the Caretaking service will help keep our area clean and tidy, improve back courts, reduce the chances of rats and other pests, and assist with other minor repairs. This will reduce our expenditure on external contractors thereby potentially offsetting the financial impact.

Our future reviews will establish if the Caretaking service would fully offset the saved expenditure, or if additional resources would be required. We are therefore asking our tenants if they would be happy to pay a small increase in their rent to retain this local service, potentially a further 1% as a one-off increase to cover the costs. The Management Committee will review tenant opinions, the costs incurred, and assess the benefit to our services before deciding if this should be implemented.

When deciding on future rent levels we consider the Consumer Price Index (CPI) figure of inflation as an indication of our likely costs in the forthcoming year. For the 2023/24 increase the Association decided to increase the rent charges by 6.0% at a point where inflation was as high as 11.1%. As this was substantially below-inflation we notified tenants that future increases would be above-inflation to recover this shortfall.

The most recent CPI rate available is 2.3%. Therefore the Association's Senior Management Team and Management Committee would propose an increase of 3.3% from 1st April 2025. This may change depending on the Estate Caretaker pilot outcome.

We would like to hear your views on this rent increase proposal. Please have your say by completing the form on this page. All submissions will be entered into a draw and two tenants will receive a £30 shopping voucher.

You may have received a paper copy of this letter. If you complete the survey online you do not need to return the paper copy, and you will still be entered into the online draw! 

If you are struggling to pay your rent, or if you have any money worries, please get in touch as soon as possible. The Association has a Welfare Rights Officer who can provide information and support on a range of benefit issues. Alternatively we can offer a referral to Drumchapel Money Advice Centre for debt or money advice. Both services are free for all tenants. If you would like an appointment for either please contact the office as soon as possible.

Some more information on how your rent money is spent is provided on the leaflet enclosed with your letter or email.

If you would like any further information please do not hesitate to contact Grant Kennedy, Deputy Chief Executive, at the office on 0141 285 7910, or by emailing administration@yorkhillha.org.