How will rent reductions affect Keniston’s service?

Posted on the 30th March 2016

In July 2015, the government introduced a four year period of rent reductions for tenants of housing associations. This reverses a long period of above inflation rent increases for many of Keniston’s tenants. Reducing rental income has a significant impact on Keniston and we will lose about £1.7 million over the next four years compared with what we had previously expected. We have worked hard at producing a much tighter budget for the year from April 2016. This includes looking hard at some of our bigger items of expenditure. After reviewing our stock reinvestment programme (upgrades to kitchens, bathrooms, windows, roofs etc.) we think we can reduce expenditure in this area. We have also reduced the budget for our Better Homes Better Neighbourhoods initiative. This together with more prudent budgeting, enables us to match the amount of money we will lose over the next four years. We think these changes will have only a small impact on services so we hope you will hardly notice them. It will also enable us to build some new homes.