Future priorities for our housing services

If you live in a Hackney Council home we want to know which services provided by our housing services are most important to you.

Last year, the government capped the amount social housing rents could be increased by to a below inflation 7%.

While the cap may have helped minimise some of the impact of the cost of living crisis on our residents it means our housing services have less money to manage, maintain, repair and improve our homes and estates.

It also impacts our ability to deliver a range of services aimed at improving the quality of life for our council tenants.

As a result, we need to find £11 million of savings from our £161.8million annual budget over the next 4 years from April 2024 to deliver our housing services.

Why we need to make savings

The money we use to deliver our housing services comes from the rent we collect.

In April, we introduced a below inflation 7% increase in our rents in line with government guidelines.

The government’s rent cap helped reduce the impact of the rising cost of living for residents in our homes. However, it has also had a significant impact on our budgets.

Like all households, inflation means we are facing higher costs of things like:

• building materials
• fittings
• delivering services

There is no other pot of money, or government funding, we can use to invest in delivering housing services. This means we need to make savings to our housing budget.

What housing services covers

The work of housing services covers five main areas:

• repairs – for example, general repairs to people’s homes, tackling damp and mould
• resident and building safety – for example, fire and gas safety, building safety regulations
• capital works – for example, replacing kitchens and front doors, improving estates, making your homes more energy efficient, maintaining lifts
• tenancy services – for example, rent collections, management of council homes, and tackling anti-social behaviour
• central services – for example, customer services, managing and monitoring service performance, supporting service improvements

Reducing the budget

Any reduction in our housing services budget will have an impact on how we can manage, repair, maintain and improve our homes and provide services supporting our residents.

For example, it could mean:

• longer wait times for routine repairs, new windows, or kitchen upgrades
• improvements to estates would not be as often as we would want
• tackling issues impacting people’s lives like anti-social behaviour may take longer to resolve

We’re committed to working closely with our tenants to shape and prioritise how we continue delivering the key things they need.

Have your say

We’re held an 8 week survey to find out which services provided by our housing services are most important to you.

The survey ended on Sunday 10 September.

All survey responses help shape recommendations that we will put before councillors by the end of this year.

Any decisions on reductions to budgets would come into effect from 1 April 2024.