Housing Executive Rent to increase by 2.7%

The Housing Executive are increasing their annual rent charges  by 2.7% from April.  It will add £2.16 to the average weekly rent and will bring the average rent for a Housing Executive home to £82.05 a week, excluding rates. It comes on top of a 7.7% increase last year.

Each tenant will receive a letter over the next few weeks advising of their new rent charges, and what they need to do before the increase comes in on 7 April.

Housing Executive Chief Executive, Grainia Long, Chief Executive, said; “Rent pays for essential high-quality customer and neighbourhood services as well as ongoing maintenance of our homes and significant improvement work.

“The increase goes straight back into our houses and our tenant services. 

“We plan to spend over £287m next year in improving and maintaining our homes, this is an increase of £37m on last year, with more than a quarter of our homes being upgraded with work programmes. 

“Importantly, £49m of this will go to installing new energy efficient measures in over 10,000 of our homes."

The Housing executive have a dedicated financial inclusion team to pro-actively identify tenants who may benefit from financial advice. Information on cost of living support and advice is also available on their website at: www.nihe.gov.uk

If tenants are concerned about their rent payments they can also contact their Patch Manager by phoning 03448 920 900. 

Long added “We encourage any tenant who is having difficulty paying their rent, to contact us immediately for assistance and advice. 

“We would also reassure tenants that we will only take legal action in circumstances where rent is not fully paid and a tenant refuses to engage with us. 

“We have included details of how to get in touch and the help available in our letter to each tenant.”

Approximately 80% of Housing Executive tenants receive full or partial Housing Benefit support or Universal Credit towards their rent.