Councillors announce social housing rent increase

Sheffield council tenants are facing a rent increase from April

Rent for council tenants in Sheffield is set to go up after councillors approved an increase.

From April, rent for all council dwellings will rise by 2.7%, while the service charge for sheltered housing, burglar alarm charges and furnished accommodation charges will go up by 1.7%.

Sheffield City Council's strategy and resources policy committee approved the changes on Wednesday.

The committee heard the additional revenue would generate more than £5m in the year to April 2026, with some of the extra income being used to fund repairs, fire and gas safety works and tackling damp and mould issues.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the council's Housing Revenue Account is predicted to generate £187m in 2025-26, predominately from tenant rents.

The money will be spent on delivering repairs, capital improvements and tenant services to more than 38,000 council homes across the city.

However, at Wednesday's meeting, Ajman Ali, the council's executive director of neighbourhood services told members that a "net decrease" in the number of council homes was expected over the next 30 years.

Mr Ali said it was estimated that around 800 homes would be "lost" to the right-to-buy scheme in the next 12 months alone.

The council was also "working hard" to reduce overdue housing repairs to zero by June, he added.

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