Rent policy review: final report

Overall, the rent policy is meeting its objectives and should be retained. 

The main findings were:

• the mechanisms for moving rents to within target bands appear to have been largely successful
• landlords identified the benefits of the rent policy as being: clarity, transparency and  comparability
• rental policy uplift considerations should include affordability, the relationship over time between earnings and rents, as well as the relationships between social rents in England and Wales and landlords ability to balance rents and investment
• there is felt to be a lack of fit between the rent policy and the policy on grant rates for new developments
• several stakeholders, tenants and social landlords raised the issue of Value for Money and so the research suggests exploring the monitoring of standards.