During November and December 2024, we wrote to tenants, held face-to-face consultation events and posted our latest Partick Times to all tenants.  In the first phase of this consultation, we asked tenants to prioritise which services were most important to you.

Thank you to everyone who has given us feedback – we received 100 responses, and several tenants attended our consultation events.  Here is what you told us:

• more than 8 out of 10 of you thought that PHA strikes a reasonable balance between the quality of our homes, the cost of the services we deliver and how customers can afford them.

When we asked you about your top service or investment priorities for PHA:

• almost 9 out of 10 said delivering effective repairs and maintenance.
• more than 7 out of 10 said delivering planned improvements.
• almost 5 out of 10 said keeping closes, back courts and communal areas clean and tidy.
• almost 5 out of 10 said providing new homes to meet local housing needs.
• more than 2 out of 10 said working in partnership with others in the community to deliver services for tenants and residents; and
• more than 2 out of 10 said working in partnership with others to tackle anti-social behaviour.

This has helped us understand your needs better.  We have reviewed and tailored our plans on how we deliver services and the rents we will charge from 1 April 2025.

Our proposals – why we are increasing our rent

We want rents across our housing stock to be affordable, equitable, transparent, consistent and reasonable.

Each year we review how much money we need to provide services and investment in the year ahead. We look at how much our rents must change by – we consider how best to prioritise what we do and if we can do things differently.

We have looked at the cost of living as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), which the Government also uses as a reference point for uprating pensions and other benefits.

The Association must balance our increasing costs to deliver services and maintain homes, including energy bills, supplies and materials, repairs costs, investment works and staff costs.

In the past three years, PHA has increased rents for tenants at a much lower rate than our growing cost pressures and by less than many other landlords.  We must now increase our rents, while ensuring what we charge remains affordable to most social rented tenants and residents of our shared ownership properties.

What would it mean for you?

We are proposing to increase our rents by 4% for the 2025/26 financial year, beginning on the 1st April 2025.

This increase means we will continue to focus on your priorities – delivering effective repairs and maintenance, investing in improving our homes so they meet modern standards, and keeping common areas clean and tidy.  It also means we will keep providing new homes, tackling anti-social behaviour and working with partner organisations across the community.

For PHA tenants this will mean an average increase of around £3.88 per week, depending upon the type and size of property that you live in.

We understand that tenants have limited incomes to pay for fuel bills, food costs and other pressures.

If you are a PHA tenant who gets assistance with your rent, your Housing Benefit or Universal Credit will be updated to include any rent changes.

However, if you have any concerns or queries about paying your rent, please contact your Housing Officer or our Money Advice Officer – we are here to help.

How do we spend your rent?

Click here for information explaining more about how we spend your rent money and how we look to keep your rent affordable.

What would it mean for us?

• keeping rents at an affordable level;
• meeting the commitments in our business plan; and
• continuing to deliver quality services and investment that meet tenants’ needs.

What happens next?

You can go online and complete our survey by using the following link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PHARent_Phase2

Thank you for taking the time to give us your views.  The closing date for your feedback is Monday 13 January 2025.

If you have any queries, you can email us directly at info@partickha.org.uk

Partick Housing Association’s Board will consider tenant feedback when making its final decision on our 2025/26 budget and rent levels.  They will also look at the actual costs of delivering services and investment, as well as rent comparisons with other housing associations.  It is important that PHA remains financially sustainable and able to deliver on our commitments to tenants. We will write to tenants again in February 2025 to let you know what your rent and any service charges will be for 2025/26.