Author Archives: Jenny Webb

EHA Tenants’ Voice Report 2025

26th June 2026

Our 2025 Tenants’ Voice report is here! It showcases what you’ve told us, and the impact your views have had on our services.

Over the last year, we’ve worked with tenants to make changes across our services, which have led to positive outcomes – both for EHA, and our tenants:

How your voices were heard 2025/26

The report summarises how we heard your voices, how we’ve listened and acted – and the impact you may feel as a result.

This year, we formed a Tenant Engagement Scrutiny Taskforce to review our Tenant Engagement Service. We’ll share the final report and updates in August’s Viewpoint.

Part of their review looked at last year’s report, to make sure the information is clear and useful. We used the Taskforce’s feedback to:

  • Simplify the layout
  • Reduce the number of colours
  • Reduce the wordcount
  • Increase the colour contrast
  • All to make the report easier to read and absorb.

We’ll share the report with you individually, but for now, you can view it here:

EHA Tenants Voice Report 2025-26

On the back page, you’ll find our ‘Menu of Involvement’, where you can see all of the ways you can be involved in our work… you can then tell us how you’d like us to listen – from online surveys for specific areas of service, to joining our Board.

You can complete the Menu of Involvement directly HERE… whichever way you’d like to tell us your views – we want to hear them!

Tenant Approved!

You may notice we’ve added a new ‘Tenant Approved’ logo too. It’s to show when tenants have played an active role in making sure the information we share is clear and accessible. If you see the ‘Tenant Approved’ stamp on any of our information, you’ll know that it was co-created with, and approved by, our tenants.

 

The NHF is recruiting new members of their Tenant Advisory Panel

12th January 2026

The NHF is recruiting new members of their Tenant Advisory Panel…

The National Housing Federation (NHF) is the voice of housing associations in England, representing almost 600 housing association members that provide homes for around six million people.

TAP is the NHF’s resident panel, who help shape their work and advise on key issues from a resident perspective. Applications are open until 30th January – to find out more, click the link to the application pack below:

Download the application pack

What do you think of a rent increase in April?

31st October 2025

Eden Housing Association Proposed Rent Increase – April 2026

At their next meeting, our Board need to decide about what increase to apply to rents next year. We are still waiting for confirmation from the government about what the increase can be, but we are expecting around 4.8%. We think this is the minimum required to keep the business improving homes and meet tenants’ priorities. Our Board are keen to hear what tenants think so they have a clearer picture before considering our recommendation.

Please note: The Government is yet to make a decision around a consultation called social rent convergence. ‘Social Rent convergence’ aims to even out social rent levels across the country, to make them more consistent. 

 The government is likely to announce their decision as part of the Autumn Budget in November. We will inform tenants once a decision has been made towards the end of this year.

What do you think about a rent increase in April 2026?

How rents are calculated

Before you answer that question, we would like to try and explain a little more about how rents are calculated and what has been happening with rents in the last few years.

As a housing association we can’t just choose to charge what we like. The formula for calculating rents is set by the Government, and they tell us what we can charge. You can view the relevant Government Documents (Rent Standard, Rent Standard guidance and MHCLG Policy Statement) by following this link.

Most commonly, rents have increased every year with increases in charges usually being calculated using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the Retail Price Index (RPI), which are common measures of inflation in the UK.

In 2013 the Government announced that in each of the following ten years, we could increase rents by CPI plus 1%. Then in 2015, for the first time ever, the Government made a surprise announcement that we must apply a 1% decrease in each of the following four years instead.

As an example, the table below shows the impact of these calculation changes, starting with rent of £100 per week in 2013, and assuming CPI of 2%:

Year Rent (an increase every year of CPI + 1%) Rent (a 1% decrease 2016-20, then increases)
2013 £100 £100
2014 £103 £103
2015 £106.09 £106.09
2016 £109.27 £105.03
2017 £112.55 £103.98
2018 £115.93 £102.94
2019 £119.40 £101.91
2020 £122.99 *£104.67
2021  £126.68 **£106.24
2022 £130.48 *** £110.60
2023 £134.39 **** £118.34
2024 £138.42 ***** £126.62
2025 £142.57 ****** £130.04

* Increased by 2.7% from April 2020 / ** increased by 1.5% from April 2021 / *** increased by 4.1% from April 2022/ ****increased by 7% from April 2023 / *****increased by 7% from April 2024 / ******increased by 2.7% from April 2025

The impact of rent changes since 2016

The Government sets standards for how we provide services to our tenants.  One of many tests they use to make sure we are doing things responsibly is to check every year that we will have the resources to do everything properly for the next 30 years. We have to have a financial plan that will pay for everything needed (repairs, improvements like new roofs and kitchens etc, and that we have money to build new homes for tenants too).

The rent decrease since April 2016 gave us £2.6million less to spend between 2016 and 2020, and over the 30 years, it has taken £28million out of the pot we expected to have.

The awful Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 has rightly made sure that there is lots of focus on making sure properties are safe – and that has brought new costs too for things like new fire doors etc.  We must still buy goods and specialist services to provide services to you. The price of materials, equipment and contractors’ charges have continued to increase with inflation even though we have less money available.  Like all housing associations, we have had to make less money stretch further than we have had to before.

It has been challenging at times to provide the same quality of service that we used to provide.  Before the rent decrease, we used to put new kitchens and bathrooms in sooner than the Decent Homes Standard set by the Government. Since the rent cut, we are making these improvements in the longer timescales the Government sets out.

We know these changes have sometimes led to increased dissatisfaction, but we also know that despite that, most of the tenants that we ask agree that they would still recommend us to their family or friends.  We also know that our tenants value the ‘home for life’ we provide rather than a short six-month tenancy, and that our rents are considerably lower than average rents in the private sector around us.

Since April 2021 we have been able to apply an increase in rent. Last April we increased rents by 2.7% as set by the government

Overall, in 2024/25 we spent £5.9million maintaining and improving existing homes including day-to-day repairs.

We responded to 7,940 reported repairs, of which 1,124 were emergencies, completed 3,037 safety checks on heating systems and electrics and completed the following improvement works:

  • 103 new heating systems
  • New windows in 55 homes
  • New kitchens in 38 homes

Our planned maintenance programme for this year includes:

Improvement No. of Homes Approximate cost
Roofing 25 £400,000
Windows 66 £190,000
Heating* 110 £383,000
Kitchen 70 £576,000
Fire doors 40 £82,000
Doors 43 £52,000
Structural & Drainage n/a £63,000

*does not include new Air Source Heat Pump systems

 Upgrades – what’s the cost?

Between 2026 and 2027, we plan to carry out further improvement works across the homes we provide.  We use information we hold about our homes to tell us when and where we need to spend money on improvements.  Staff make detailed plans each year, based on surveys.

The 30-year plan is based on having rent increases of CPI plus 1% for the next four years.  We currently have the following amounts in the overall plan:

 

Improvement

 2025/26

 

Number of homes / value

 2026/27

 

Number of homes / value
Roof 25 £400,000 25 £400,000
Kitchen 70 £576,000 70 £576,000
Bathroom 25 £146,000 25 £146,000
Windows 60 £190,000 60 £190,000
Heating* 110 £382,665 110 £382,665

*different heating types cost very different amounts of money

Current average costs per property are listed here:

Works Approximate cost (incl. VAT) per property
Full external render £19,000
Rewire £7,000
Full external repaint £1,500
Re-roof £16,000
Kitchen replacement £7,000
Bathroom replacement £3,800
Heating upgrade £3,500 (Gas)
Windows £3,250
External door £1,200 per door

Based on current costings for a three bedroomed property. Costs include pre-repair, all pre-work and additional required cost (e.g. scaffolding).

What will happen in April 2026?

We are still waiting for the Government to tell us how to increase rents next year. We are expecting it will be 4.8%.

Please note: The Government is yet to make a decision around a consultation called social rent convergence. ‘Social Rent convergence’ aims to even out social rent levels across the country, to make them more consistent. 

The government is likely to announce their decision as part of the Autumn Budget in November. We will inform tenants once a decision has been made towards the end of this year.

However, based in the information we have, we anticipate our proposed rent increase from April will be around 4.8%.

This table shows what a 4.8% increase means for a range of example rents:

Current Rent New Rent in April
£80 £83.84
£90 £94.32
£100 £104.80
£110 £115.28
£120 £125.76
£130 £136.24

This rent increase will provide the money to allow us to deliver the home improvements we need to, and to maintain our other repairs and maintenance services.

Our Board are keen to hear what tenants think so they have a clearer picture before considering our recommendation.

Tell us what you think about the 2026 Rent Increase, by completing our survey:

 2026 Rent Increase Survey

 If you add your contact details, we’ll enter you in a draw for £50 vouchers to spend locally – you’ll receive them before the end of November, ready for Christmas!

EHA’s Offices Closed Wednesday 1st October

30th September 2025

Please note our offices will be closed on Wednesday 1st October for staff training. We will reopen on Thursday 2nd October at 9am.

For emergency repairs, you can contact our out of hours service on the usual number – 01768 861400.

Thank you for your understanding.

UK Emergency Alert – Sunday 7th September 3pm

5th September 2025

Advice for victims of domestic abuse

A nationwide test of the UK’s emergency alert service will take place at 3pm on Sunday 7 September 2025. The alerts will warn you if there’s a danger to life nearby, such as flooding or fires.

Emergency alerts contain life-saving information and should be kept switched on for your own safety.

You can opt out of emergency alerts. For example, victims of domestic abuse with a concealed phone may find it appropriate to turn off alerts.

How you opt out depends on your device, if you still get alerts after opting out, contact your device manufacturer for help.

https://www.gov.uk/alerts/opting-out