| | TENANT CONSULTATION ON RENTS FOR 2023-24 |
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| Please select the button below to start the survey. | | |
1. YOUR CURRENT CIRCUMSTANCES |
The Housing Service wants to make sure that any decisions on rents take account of affordability for tenants, especially given the ongoing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the increase in the cost of living, which is having an impact on people’s household finances. The first few questions relate to this. We understand that some people may find this information to be sensitive so if you do not wish to provide an answer to any of these questions, please just indicate that you prefer not to say. |
| Q1.1 | What is the working status of the head of your household at the present time? If you consider the home to have joint heads of household, please answer for yourself. | | | | | | | | | |
| Q1.2 | Which of the following best describes your current arrangements for payment of rent? | | | | |
| Q1.3 | How easy or difficult have you found it to afford the rent payments for this property IN THE PAST? | | | | | | |
| Q1.4 | How easy would you expect it to be to afford your current rent payments IN THE FUTURE? | | | | | | |
| Q1.5 | Based on your current rent levels and household income, approximately what percent of your net household income (that is, after tax) goes on paying your rent (and any service charges) to the Council’s Housing Service? | | | | | | |
| Q1.6 | Based on your current rent / other outgoings and household income, approximately what percent of your net household income (that is, after tax) goes on all household fuel use (including gas, electricity, heating etc.)? | | | | |
| Q1.7 | Based on your current rent / other outgoings and household income, approximately what percentage of your net household income (that is, after tax) goes on paying your Council Tax and water and sewage charges? These are issued together by the Council as a single bill. | | | | | | |
We now have a couple of questions that relate specifically to how you may or may not be affected by the current cost of living crisis. Answers to these questions will help the Council’s Housing Service to understand people’s immediate needs and how these could be addressed. However, we would stress again that, should you find this information to be sensitive, you do not have to answer. |
| Q1.8 | In the last month, have you...? | | | Yes | No | Prefer not to say |
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| | Had more than one day when you didn't eat at all, or had only one meal, because you couldn't afford to buy enough food | | | |
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| | Not been able to dress appropriately because you didn't have suitable shoes or clothes and were unable to buy them | | | |
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| | Gone without basic toiletries such as soap, shampoo, a toothbrush, toothpaste or sanitary items because you couldn't afford them | | | |
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| | Not been able to afford to heat your home on more than four days across the month | | | |
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| | Not been able to afford to light your home on more than four days across the month | | | |
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| Q1.9 | Taking everything together, which of the following statements best describes how you and your household are managing financially these days? | | | | | | |
2. RENT LEVELS FOR 2023/24 |
The Scottish Government has frozen rent levels for council tenants through to March 2023 but decisions still need to be taken by Councils and other landlords as to any potential increase in rents for the next financial year, which is April 2023 to March 2024. |
As inflation has increased significantly, it is not considered appropriate for rents to increase by the inflation given the cost of living pressures that people are now facing. This means that, whatever option for 2023/24 rent levels is adopted, the Housing Service will have to reduce its planned investment in things like housing upgrades, new council homes for rent and day-to-day services like adaptations and garden maintenance. The extent of this reduction will depend on the option chosen. The lower the level of increase then the less the Housing Service will have to invest in tenants’ homes and new council homes for rent; this may also mean that rents need to go up by more in the future to meet the Council’s obligations in relation to housing quality and things like energy efficiency and climate change. |
Three options are under consideration for 2023-24:
- Rents to remain at their current level
- Rents to increase by 2.5%
- Rents to increase 5%
To put these options in context, each 2.5% of an increase provides income of approximately £4.5 over the next three years, which can fund approximately:
- 1,100 kitchen, bathroom or heating upgrades, or
- 60 new build council homes, or
- The annual budget for disabled adaptations and garden maintenance. |
| Q2.1 | Taking everything into account, which of these rent options would you support for 2023-24? Interviewer, please read out all options fully and repeat as necessary to ensure respondent’s understanding. Please ask respondent to select one option only. | | | | | |
| Q2.2 | | |
Whichever of these rent options is chosen, this will mean that the Council’s Housing Service will need to reduce and / or delay expenditure on things like new kitchens and bathrooms, rewiring, roofing and energy efficiency measures such as heating systems, insulation and photovoltaic / solar panels as well as reducing expenditure on day-to-day services like repairs and on new council homes for rent. The questions in this section will provide the Housing Service with an idea of those things that you would most like to be prioritised. It is important to note that prioritising one thing will mean other things being less of a priority. |
| Q3.1 | How important do you consider each of the following things to be on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is “Not at all important” and 10 is “very important”? | | | Not at all important | | | | Very important |
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| Q3.2 | Please choose up to THREE of these things that are MOST IMPORTANT to you. | | | | | | | | | |
| Q3.3 | And from the following more general list, which TWO of these things are most important to you? | | | | |
The following information will be used to assess the views of different groups of people. We understand that some people may find this information to be sensitive so if you do not wish to provide an answer to any of these questions, please just tell me that you prefer not to say. |
| Q4.3 | Do you or any member of your family have a disability? | | | |
| Q4.5 | What is your ethnic group? | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Q4.6 | Who lives in the household with you? | | | | | | |
Should you wish, please leave your name, first line of your address and postcode below. This will help us to better understand if responses are different amongst tenants from different locations or other factors. |
Thank you for completing our survey.
Please click the "Submit" button below.
You will then be redirected to Aberdeenshire Council Housing page. This means your survey response has been received. |
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