The Department for Levelling Up (DLUHC) has brought out a series of reforms to shared ownership rents including how much rents can increase by and Homes England’s rent review schedule.
The government said that from 12 October the changes would apply to the leases of new shared owners.
The DLUHC said that rent for new shared owners can now be increased once a year by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) plus one per cent, which it said would bring shared ownership rents in line with the limit that applies to annual rent increases in other kinds of social housing.
Prior to this, shared ownership rents could be increased by once a year by the Retail Price Index plus 0.5 per cent, which the department said was an “outdated measure of inflation” that it was planning to phase out by the end of the decade.
Homes England is changing its Rent Review schedule for its model shared ownership lease to clarify that registered providers of social housing have “discretion” to up rents by less than CPI plus one per cent.
“This ensures that providers have greater flexibility to protect new shared owners from particularly high rent increases during periods of high inflation,” it noted.
The DLUHC is lowering the floor for share ownership rent increases from 0.5 per cent to zero per cent so rents cannot be increased if CPI is less than one per cent or lower.
The government said it was exempting select new shared ownership homes from the reforms, including new homes that are in contract to be delivered through the Affordable Homes Programme.
This is to ensure that providers can continue to deliver these homes.
Anna is currently the deputy editor for Mortgage Solutions and editor for Specialist Lending Solutions. She has worked as a journalist since 2019, having secured her Gold Standard NCTJ diploma from News Associates in a fast-track six-month course.
She started her career as a report at specialist publication The Insurance Insider covering a wide range of areas before joining Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions in 2021.
In her role, she helps put together and structure the news agenda for the day and writes up press releases, reports, interviews, analyses and exclusives across both titles. She also commissions blogs for Specialist Lending Solutions and hosts online masterclasses and in-person events across the business.
She has been shortlisted for three journalism awards, which include BIBA Journalist and Media Awards Scoop of Year Award in 2020, Headline Money Mortgage Journalist of the Year Award (B2B) in 2022 and 2023.
Prior to being a journalist, Anna worked in ecommerce across Snow + Rock, Cycle Surgery and Runners Need websites, and before that worked at specialist financial PR firm Rostrum.
In her spare time, Anna enjoys reading, seeing live music, and cooking for friends and family. When she gets a chance, she also enjoys hiking, skiing and indoor rock climbing.
