Rotherham Council’s Cabinet is set to recommend plans to deliver more homes and invest £979m into its housing stock over the next 30 years when it meets on Monday 16 December.
The Housing Revenue Account Business Plan for 2025/26 outlines the Council’s commitment to ensuring homes are safe, decent and thermally efficient, expanding the Housing Delivery Programme to benefit more residents across the borough, modernising the housing service to further improve customer experience for tenants, alongside day-to-day housing management and repairs and maintenance costs.
It makes funding provision of £979m in the Council’s housing stock over the next 30 years, including £36.3m in 2025/26, and £151m investment to continue developing more homes, alongside commitments to improve the energy efficiency of homes.
The Council expects to meet its commitment to deliver 1,000 new Council homes across the borough by summer 2027 through its Housing Delivery Programme. This commitment will be met by either building new properties or through housing acquisitions from both private developers and the open market. The HRA Business Plan proposes a further £37m to continue the Housing Delivery Programme into 2027 and beyond, with work already underway to identify the pipeline of sites which will contribute to this future delivery of much-needed Council homes.
Nearly 20,000 households in Rotherham are Council tenancies.
The Council and its contractors complete around 90,000 repairs and servicing visits a year. To reflect the importance of the service and the increase in demand, the Council proposes to increase spending to £27.6m in 2025/26 to cover costs including day-to-day responsive repairs, planned repairs like replacement doors and windows and kitchen repairs and damp and mould works.
To support the programme of investment, Cabinet is set to recommend that Council approves a 2.7 per cent increase in Council rents in line with Government policy.
Around three-quarters of Council tenants are in receipt of Universal Credit or Housing Benefit, so will receive some or all of their rents paid from these benefits.
In addition, shared ownership rents are proposed to increase by 3.2 per cent with a two per cent rise in charges for shared facilities such as parking spaces, communal facilities and laundry facilities.
Cabinet is also set to approve a small increase in District Heating charges, paid by 1,260 households around the borough, with the unit rate increasing to 13.09p per kwh. This will mean the average bill for a District Heating customer will be in line with the forecasted energy price cap from April 2025. To keep this increase down, the Council is proposing to spend £206,000 from the Housing Revenue Account.
Cllr Sarah Allen, Cabinet Member for Housing, said: “It is vital that the funding is available to the Council to maintain safe, good quality and well-managed homes while investing in new affordable housing.
"The Council is committed to making these significant investments to enhance the quality of life for our tenants. These improvements will not only benefit our current tenants but also ensure that future generations have access to high-quality housing.
“Building new Council homes is a key priority for us, to ensure that more residents are able to access affordable housing which suits their needs.
“At the same time, we will continue to support tenants to manage their finances during the cost of living crisis. We recognise that housing costs are often one of the biggest financial outgoings for residents.”
The Council is committed to supporting tenants experiencing financial difficulties and will do this through continuing early intervention and arrears prevention. Work will continue to support tenants to pay their rent, including offering additional support to vulnerable tenants to help with money, benefits and debt advice.
For more information visit Housing – Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council