Sheffield £0.5bn council homes spending and rent rises approved
Sheffield councillors have agreed to council house rent increases and a five-year spending plan that will see £0.5bn of investment.
A full meeting of Sheffield City Council (February 4) approved the recommendations from the housing policy committee.
Rent rises allowed for all social landlords, including councils, for the next 10 years from April will now follow a government formula of CPI inflation plus 1%. For 2026-27 the rise will be 4.8%, based on the September 2025 CPI inflation rate of 3.8%.
The government looked set to allow an additional charge of up to £2 a week for rents that are below a certain level. However, this ‘convergence charge’ is now being phased in at £1 per week, rising to £2 in 2028.
The council’s housing revenue account (HRA) uses income from rents and housing-related charges such as garage rents to fund capital spending on around 37,800 council homes. It will have £3.45m less than predicted.
This means that the expected additional income to the HRA has been cut from £8.3m to £4.83m.
Total income is set to be around £204m.
Garage rents will increase by 4.8% from April and the weekly District Heating standing charge rises from £4.90 to £5.50. Sheltered housing service, burglar alarm and furnished accommodation charges all go up by 3.8%.
Investment
Key areas of investment over the next five years:
- £93.4m on replacing roofs, installing solar photovoltaic panels to around 60 flat blocks, replacing kitchens and bathrooms, required boiler and electrical system upgrades.
- Urgent renewals and essential replacements for the District Heating service, costing £59,302,000.
- £22,537,000 to fund the replacement of communal lifts and complex electrical equipment.
- Fire safety work costing £43,255,000. This includes fire door upgrades and fire safety refurbishment at 20 dual staircase tower blocks.
- Adaptations and accessibility work for people with disabilities and older tenants, costing £20,592,000.
- Work to deliver better insulation and energy efficiency of homes totalling £51,541,000.
- £24,862,000 for the regeneration of homes in the Gleadless Valley and improved roofing, walkways and staircases for Edward Street flats in the city centre.
- Environmental improvements for council estates costing £5,653,000.
Housing committee chair Coun Douglas Johnson said: “As a result of a government decision we got about £3.5m less in this financial year to invest than we were hoping for.
“Nevertheless, for Sheffield the investment is still there. Over the next five years there will be better investment in council housing.”
Improvements
Coun Johnson said the council will also be investing in housing staff and their skills.
On the investment plans, Coun Johnson said: “These are big sums and I’m really pleased we could get them in there.”
He said that all the improvements will be paid for by tenants as there is no government subsidy for the HRA.
Council leader Coun Tom Hunt said: “We are working to improve the quality and quantity of council housing in the city.” He said that the council aims to build 1,000 new homes by 2029.
Around 3,000 homes will benefit from the council’s commitment to upgrade bathrooms, kitchen and doors. The roofing programme will benefit 5,000 homes and 1,200 boilers will be replaced.
Adaptations will make around 6,000 properties more accessible.
Support
“This budget has been prepared with cross-party support and I hope it will have cross-party support today,” he said.
Housing committee deputy chair Coun Penny Baker said the bad side is that the council is struggling to increase the number of council houses, while the tenants’ right to buy means that by 2054-55, there will be 2,600 less council houses than today.
She thanked council staff and tenants’ representatives for their work.
Darnall Independent Coun Qais Al-Ahdal said that he could not back the budget, despite the “amazing work” done by officers.
“The city is struggling. I know I might upset many councillors with this speech but I am here to represent my local ward and their needs and their families.
“We have got many issues that have not been addressed, including the overspend, and yet we’re requiring for residents to pay more and more.”