What does my rent include?

Your rent is made up of:

the net rent
the water charge, and
other charges

Net rent

The net rent is the amount you pay for using your home. The council combines all the rent it receives and uses the money to maintain and manage its housing.

We work out the amount of net rent you pay using a formula fixed by the Government. We work out the amount based on:

the average council rent for all local authorities in England
the average earnings in your area compared with the national average earnings
the capital value of your property compared with the national average of a council property (valuations of property are on the open-market value at January 1999 prices)
the number of bedrooms in your property

If possible, the Government wants to work out the rent for your council property according to the formula by March 2012. Limits are set and are applied each year to protect tenants from receiving large rent increases or decreases where rents need to fall.

Water charges

We collect the water charges for the water company, who set the amount charged each year.

Other charges

The types of other charges you may have to pay will include heating, insurance, garages and sheds.

Some councils itemise the cost of services such as caretaking and charge tenants individually for these services. Your landlord, the London Borough of Waltham Forest, has recently agreed in principle to charge for these and this may be introduced at a later date.

We will always tell you when we alter your rent charges; the council gives 28 days notice. The council decides how much the rent increase should be each year and the water authority sets the water charge.