Housing Executive rents to increase by nearly 8%

Rents are due to go up by an average of £5.72 a week

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive is increasing rents by almost 8% from the start of April 2024.

The Housing Executive, which is Northern Ireland's public housing authority, owns about 83,000 homes.

Almost 80% of tenants will be protected from the impact of the rent increase because they receive housing benefit or universal credit.

Tenants who are not on those benefits will face a 7.7% rise, meaning an average increase of £5.72 a week.

The increase is almost double the UK's rate of inflation which stood at 4% in December.

Part of the reason for that is the Housing Executive uses September as its reference month for rent reviews when inflation was higher.

Last year rents were increased by 7%, which at the time was below the rate of inflation.

Housing Executive rents have also been frozen for five of the last eight years.

The Housing Executive's Chief Executive Grainia Long says rent freezes have led to under-investment in organisation's housing stock

Chief Executive Housing Executive Grainia Long said rent increases were necessary to fund essential maintenance and an ongoing investment programme.

She said that the period of rent freezes had led to under-investment in the organisation's housing stock.

The rent rise is expected to increase Housing Executive income by £24m to £345m.

It expects to spend about £280m on maintenance and investment in the coming year, including around £45m on energy efficiency measures.

Normally, a decision on Housing Executive rents would be taken by Stormont's communities minister.

In the absence of a minister, the decision was taken by the Department for Communities' senior official, under powers granted by the Executive Formation Act.