Government Reintroduces Rent Convergence

The government has today announced the reintroduction of the process known as rent convergence. In short this permits social housing landlords to increase rents for those tenants who are not currently paying the ‘target rent’ for their home over and above the standard increase of Inflation (CPI) + 1%.

Target rent is a notional figure calculated buy government that they believe should be charged for social housing tenancies and over 99% of council rents are below this figure.

Therefore, from April 2027 social landlords will be entitled to increase rents by Inflation (CPI) + 1% +£1 pw. From April 2028 this will increase to inflation (CPI) + 1% + £2 pw.

This a middle figure as landlords had been seeking £3 pw whilst tenant groups (including NFTMO) had argued for £1 pw.