How your rent is worked out

The government introduced a new approach to setting rents in April 2000 in order to ensure that housing associations have similar levels of rent for similar properties across the country. All housing associations have to introduce these new rent levels by 2012.

In April 2002, the Council decided to phase in the new government calculations by changing rents in gradual annual increments over the ten year period between 2002 and 2012.

This means that there will be varying rent increases for each property over this period resulting in the government’s rent calculation for each property being reached in 2012.

How is the rent calculated?

The government formula for calculating rents reflects the size, location and the valuation of the property. It is based on the following three factors:

  • Earning levels

    The earnings level in Berkshire is calculated based on the average gross weekly earnings of full-time manual workers over the period 1997-1999.

    This amount is then compared to the average for all of England, which means that tenants will pay more rent in areas where people earn more than average.

  • Property size

The number of bedrooms in the property is also used to calculate the rent. The more bedrooms there are, the more the rent will be.

  • Property values

As Bracknell Forest Homes has over 6,000 properties, it is not possible to value each one. Therefore, we identified 120 "typical" properties in the borough to be valued by surveyors.

These properties have then been used to give a value to other ones that are similar in size, type and location. All the properties are valued at January 1999 prices.

The government formula takes into account the three factors above and determines a weekly rent charge for each property. The government also fix the level of inflation that should be applied to the formula each year.