Rents due to increase at over 10,000 council homes in Cornwall

Hundreds of Cornwall Council’s social housing properties are not up to ‘decent’ standards for ‘safety, security and comfort’ – with 200 empty – but positive news also revealed

Rents are due to increase at council homes in Cornwall. The local authority hopes a 4.8 per cent increase will help improve the quality of many of the 10,400 properties it owns.

Cornwall Council’s corporate finance scrutiny committee resolved on Tuesday (December 2) that the 2026/27 Housing Revenue Account (HRA) business plan should now progress to the council’s Liberal Democrat / Independent cabinet for consideration.

If eventually approved, which it is expected to be, it would mean a three-bed household having to pay an extra £5 a week, or £260 per year, in rent.

Cornwall Housing Ltd (CHL), a council-owned company, manages and services the 10,400 homes owned by Cornwall Council, which equates to four per cent of the total housing in Cornwall and 33 per cent of social housing.

The committee agreed with a recommendation that in light of the need for significant investment in the council’s housing stock, rent should be increased to the maximum allowable by the Government rent-setting formula, which would be 3.8 per cent as of the September 2025 CPI measure of inflation, plus an extra one per cent for the next financial year.

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A considerable proportion of Cornwall’s council homes do not meet the Decent Homes Standard – the minimum benchmark for safe, secure and comfortable housing.

Currently, approximately 15 per cent of Cornwall Council’s homes, around 1,500 properties, fall short of the standard, which requires properties to be free from serious health and safety hazards, in a reasonable state of repair, equipped with modern facilities and capable of providing adequate thermal comfort.

The council is due to invest £74 million of revenue over the next five years in repairs, maintenance and damp and mould improvements, and will spend £140 million to build and acquire new council homes by 2036/37.

The meeting was told there will be capital investment of over £850 million over the next 30 years, with £254 million investment over the next eight years, to achieve homes of a decent standard.

Members also heard that the cabinet priority is to speed up the time to achieve decency standards in the housing stock, with cabinet member for housing Cllr Peter La Broy challenging CHL to halve that time period from eight years to four years.

The committee was told that the work to improve the housing stock’s condition is estimated to require an additional £24 million.

Of the local authority’s 10,400 social housing properties, 200 are currently void – empty or temporarily vacant – and it is the housing department’s requirement to reduce that figure to less than 100 by the end of the financial year.

On a more positive note, 147 new council homes are being delivered this year, while £41 million is being planned for new development over the next five years including £6 million in 2026/27.

Louise Wood, service director for planning and housing, told the meeting: “It’s really positive. We continue to make quite good progress in terms of improving our position.

“It’s a long journey to get the council homes where we want them to be, but this will put us in a different position to where we’ve been.”

The HRA business plan will now come before the cabinet for consideration in December before a period of engagement with tenants. A final decision on the proposals, including the rent rise, will be made in March.

Do you live in a Cornwall Council property? Are you unhappy with the proposed rent rise? Or do you think it’s necessary to improve council houses? Please comment below.

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