Council tenants who are experiencing financial difficulties advised to contact the local Estate Office

The lead councillor for housing on Wrexham Council has said “nobody should feel alone or struggle with their rent” while speaking about some rent increases for council tenants.

Local councils and housing associations are responsible for setting the rents for social housing properties within a framework established by Welsh Government, and Wrexham Council have announced the outcome of the annual review.

Cllr David Griffiths, Lead Member for Housing, said, “The rent rises only affects those who are below the target rent, and those above target rent, there is no increase this year.”

“We have to do it to maintain our housing stock in good repair, safe, secure, adequately heated, well insulated and up to date kitchens and bathrooms. I think as you’ve gone around Wrexham you can see the amount of work that we do in on our council homes. It is making them proud for people to have a home to be proud of, we have got a long way to go yet but we have met stage one of the Wales Quality Housing Standards.

“Now stage two is coming out and we are working through the fundamentals of that, but stage one Wrexham has met. We have gone beyond really.”

“The money that we bring back in helps us borrow more money to make the homes as I just said,  and also to invest. Last year was the first time I think in 30 years that Wrexham Council built rental homes. I think that’s a fantastic achievement.”

Wrexham Council detailed for us, as at 31 December 2021, out of 11,055 Council properties the following number of properties were at Target Rent, below and above:

• 8,345 at Target Rent
• 2,490 below Target Rent
• 220 above Target Rent

Cllr Mark Pritchard detailed the standardisation of rents, in recent history Wrexham had well over 600 different rents in operation, “A long time ago we had hundreds of different rent settings and a three bedroom house in Rhostyllen was different from a house in Johnstown or Rossett or Gresford, and what we’ve done is standardise it.”

The details are provided in the report before councillors on Monday:

(i) Wrexham continues to use a Target Rent for each type of property applying CPI (3.1%) to current target rents for 2022/23.

(ii) for properties that are below the Target Rents for 2022/23 – an increase of rent of 3.1%.

(iii) for properties at or above the Target Rents for 2022/23 – no rent increase.

(iv) an increase of 3.1% for garage rent to £8.68 per week (48 week basis);

(v) an increase of 3.1% for garage plots (annual charge of £57.49);

(vi) an increase of 3.1% for Warden charge to £3.63 per week;

(vii) an increase of 3.1% for charges for Travellers’ plots to £91.34 (and £108.08 per week for the larger plots) (52 week basis);

The report also contains the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) budget – a common theme whenever we run stories on such housing revenue account investments is readers contrasting it to the council’s overall budget, or private renters and landlords unhappy that council tenants have had work carried out. The HRA budget is ringfenced for the housing, and is legally not part of the council’s general revenue budget or their capital budget.

Trailing future reinvestments, Cllr Griffiths said, “The next scheme is windows – replacing all the windows that we’ve got within our homes . We are investing.  It’s important to see it is the rent that allows us to do it, so in a roundabout way they’re investing in their own homes, which I think is a fantastic thing.”

Other rent uplfits have been announced,

• Wrexham Council’s housing department currently manages 2,045 garages. The current cost of renting a garage is £8.42 per week. It is proposed to increase garage rents by 3.1% and set them at £8.68 per week (48 week basis).
• Wrexham Council has a number of areas of land on which residents can apply to erect their own garage. It is proposed that the annual charge for garage plots of £55.76 be increased by 3.1% to £57.49 per annum.
• Tenants living in sheltered schemes pay a service charge, which relates to the actual costs of providing services to the building and varies per scheme. In addition, there is a Warden charge of £3.52 per week which contributes to the costs of the warden support element of the service. It is proposed to increase this charge by 3.1% to £3.63 per week.
• Heating Charges for Individual Flats – There are six schemes within the County Borough which have a communal heating supply and the supply heats both individual flats as well as the communal areas. Tenants within these units pay a weekly personal heating charge, with their rent, which covers the costs of heating their own flat. These costs will be recovered in 2022/23 based on the actual utility costs in 2021 calendar year.
• The traveller’s site is a General Fund service. There are currently 11 plots on the traveller’s site based on Ruthin Road. It is proposed to increase the charges for plots on the traveller’s site by 3.1%. It is proposed that the weekly charge per plot of £88.59 is increased to £91.34 and for the larger plots that the charge is increased from £104.83 to £108.08. These charges exclude water and sewerage charges, which is recovered as a separate charge.

Cllr Griffiths added, “What we make sure is that people aren’t struggling, and if people are struggling, we’ve got help. So nobody should feel alone or struggle with their rent.”

“All our Estate Offices are open and have trained staff who are available to advise and support any of our tenants who are experiencing financial difficulties.

“I urge any tenant in this situation to get in touch to ensure they receive the maximum support they are, in many cases, entitled to.”