GHA LAUNCHES NEXT STAGE OF CONSULTATION ON RENT STRUCTURE REVIEW

Every GHA tenant in Glasgow will get the chance to have their say on the principles of a new and fairer rent structure for the association.
The three-month citywide consultation exercise follows three separate independent reports to:
· Compare GHA rents with those of other social landlords in the city
· Assess affordability
· Seek tenants' views about rent structures. Speaking at the launch, GHA's Director of Housing Services, Mary Crearie, said: "The current rent structure has not been reviewed for around 25 years and recent research (see Notes to Editors) shows that it does not reflect current quality, amenity or value." "The purpose of this exercise is to produce a fairer and more transparent rent structure for GHA stock. It does not aim to increase rents overall but to produce a more equitable distribution of rents across the stock.

"GHA stands by its promise, made at stock transfer, that the annual rent increase for all sitting tenants will not exceed the rate of inflation until March 2008 and will not increase by more than inflation plus one per cent at least until March 2011. "We are also sticking to another promise made at the same time that we would review the rent structure we inherited from Glasgow City Council and introduce a fairer rent structure for new tenants by 2008."

The consultation document indicates the general principles that should apply to GHA's new rent structure. These are:
· Consistency and fairness - ensuring that tenants living in similar properties and receiving similar services should pay similar rent and that rent levels should reflect the type, quality and amenity of the house and services provided
· Transparency and acceptability - the basis for rent setting should be easily explained and acceptable to stakeholders
· Straightforward and practical - able to reflect changes in stock and housing market conditions and policy priorities. In order to ascertain the views of tenants across the city on the principles of the new rent structure, GHA will send out a questionnaire to all tenants, hold a series of local events and consult with the GHA Tenants Panel. Other groups being invited to take part in the consultation include Local Housing Organisations, Registered Tenants Organisations, GHA staff and voluntary groups and organisations such as Age Concern, Shelter and CAB. Those taking part in the consultation will be asked a range of questions, including whether the age, size, type, location, condition and number of rooms in a property should be taken into account when setting rent levels.

The GHA Board will discuss the results of this consultation later this year and any final proposals for a new rent structure will be subject to further consultation with tenants and other stakeholders before being introduced. ends

Notes to Editor

More than 3,000 people took part in the earlier independent research which helped formulate the principles for the new rent structure.
Rental Comparability Study
The Rental Comparability Study involved a survey of all Registered Social Landords (housing associations) and in-depth research in 12 case study landlords, as well as interviews with staff and tenants. It concluded that GHA's current rent structure lacks coherency and fairness and is not transparent to staff or tenants. The study found that:
· At April 2005, the average basic rent for GHA stock was £54 per week compared with £45 for other Registered Social Landlords
· Rents for flats are generally lower than rents for houses, but GHA multi-storey rents are higher than average
· GHA rents are competitive with the cost of purchase for first-time buyers
· GHA rents are substantially lower than the costs of renting in the private rented sector, where the average is around £93 per week
Affordability Study
The Affordability Study analysed data on tenants' income and circumstances using information from the GHA Tenant Satisfaction Survey, the Scottish Household Survey and the 2001 Census and Scottish Continuous Recording (SCORE) data collected by GHA from new tenants. It concluded that GHA rents are at the margins of affordability - particularly for larger properties. It found that: · Only 15% of GHA households contain someone in work
· A quarter of GHA tenants do not receive Housing Benefit
· The average income for a GHA tenant is £154 per week

Tenants' Views
This study aimed to assess tenants' views of GHA rents and possible rent structures. This study was based on a face to face survey with a sample of over 2,600 tenants and six focus groups with LHO committee members and members of registered tenants groups. It found that:
· Half of all tenants think that the GHA full monthly rent is good value for money and a quarter (23%) think it is poor value for money
· Just under half (44%) of tenants think that GHA rents are affordable to those in work while 27% think they are not affordable
· Tenants thought that condition of the property, area, size and property type were the most important factors to be taken into account when setting rents
· Tenants felt that multi-storeys should have the lowest rents and semi-detached houses the highest.
'Towards Fairer Rents - Key findings from the GHA studies of Affordability, Comparability and Tenants' Views on Rents' is available here.
For further information contact:
Lynne McEwan
Media and Public Relations Manager
Glasgow Housing Association
Tel. 0141 274 6725
email: lynne.mcewan@gha.org.uk