Many people are facing difficult choices due to changes affecting their money. Please do speak to us if you become concerned about being able to pay your rent. The earlier you talk to us the faster we can help. Find out more here.
Beacon is a social business with rents as the primary income stream. We don’t make profits for shareholders and all income pays for the buildings and services we provide. The costs of building and services typically increase annually, and we apply an annual uplift to the rent roll to ensure we can continue to provide safe buildings and quality services.
The below animation explains how we set your rent:
Beacon is a social business with rents as the primary income stream. We don’t make profits for shareholders and all income pays for the buildings and services we provide. The costs of building and services typically increase annually, and we apply an annual uplift to the rent roll to ensure we can continue to provide safe buildings and quality services.
Rents and service charges are reviewed annually in accordance with the Rents and Service Charges Standard 2020-2025 (rolled over to include 2026) set by Welsh Government and then approved by our Board in accordance with local policies.
For 2025/26, the maximum increase to the total rent roll permitted by Welsh Government is 2.7%. In response to resident feedback, we tested the affordability of all our rents against local income levels (called a ‘Living Rent’). Tested against average incomes by Local Authority area 100% of our general need’s properties are affordable including both rent and service charges.
Beacon aims to provide safe, quality homes for less than you’d pay a private landlord.
If you are worried about paying your rent and/or charges, please talk to us at the earliest opportunity. We know making the first step to ask for help can be daunting but please do speak to us as soon as you become concerned about being able to pay. The earlier you talk to us the faster we can help.
Although we are now Beacon Cymru, how you contact your Community Housing Officer hasn’t changed and our contact number for our Customer Services Team remains the same, you can call us on 01792 479200 and press option 1 to speak to our Rent Management Team who will be happy to discuss your options.
More information on how we can help you can be found here.
On 2nd January 2025 Coastal Housing and RHA Wales merged to form Beacon Cymru. As our annual rent setting calculations are worked out before this date, your rent and service charge were set by the Board of either Coastal Housing or RHA Wales. However, the rent increase across all properties was approved at 2.7% for 2025/26 by both Boards.
Rent pays for services and work that ensures compliance with building safety needs, day-to-day repairs and longer-term maintenance such as replacement kitchen and window programmes and work to improve the energy efficiency of home
The rent also pays for Beacon staff and contractors and the services they provide. It also enables the repayment of loans to build and maintain homes.
Beacon aims to provide safe, quality homes at rent levels that are affordable to local communities. Rents are reviewed annually in accordance with limits set by Welsh Government.
We recently asked residents their views on how we should set rents in Beacon Cymru.
159 tenants (74%) felt that their rent and service charge is affordable. This compares to 78% of respondents last year.
33% of respondents said they would like to know more about what rent is used for.
We also asked you to tell us what they thought we should take account of when setting rents:
We thank everyone who took the time to give us their views.
Beacon’s board make the final decision on rent setting, ensuring there has been affordability testing, resident engagement and that any changes are both within Welsh Government limits and support the needs of the financial business plan.
Takea look at the advice leaflet we are sending out to all residents.
The animation at the top of this page explains more.
No. Welsh Government provides rent control for ‘social rent’ properties through the Rent and Service Charge Standard. This standard runs to 2025 and permits rents to be increased by a maximum of September Consumer Prices Index (CPI) +1% (in aggregate) as long as a number of conditions are met. However, if CPI falls outside of the range 0% to 3%, Welsh Government ‘calls in’ the decision for that year.
For 2025/26 rents, Welsh Government called in the decision and capped the maximum rent increase at +2.7% overall. You can read more about this here.
*CPI is published by the Office for National Statistics. It measures the average change from month to month in the prices of goods and services purchased by most households in the UK. The government uses the CPI as the basis for its inflation target and for uprating of state pensions and state benefits.
Many of the properties Beacon own and manage are not defined by the term ‘social rent’ and therefore are not subject to Welsh Governments’ Rent and Service Charge Standard. This includes extra care housing, supported housing, intermediate rent properties, Welsh Housing Partnership properties, etc. These rents are set by Beacon and we have also capped increases 2.7%
Shared ownership, leasehold and ground rent increases are typically in line with the specified contract terms.
We regularly review our Rent Setting Policy and, in response to resident feedback, are now prioritising testing the affordability of rents against local income levels (called a ‘Living Rent’). If you would like to be part of this group, please call us on 01443 424200 email us at [email protected] ask to be added.
We are establishing a method for regular feedback from residents on service charges, to gather scheme specific feedback on flexible service charges.
Our estates team carry out different tasks at each scheme and this will depend on a number of factors such as the size of the external grounds, if there are any shrubbed/planted areas, bin stores and bin areas, and whether there are internal areas that our estates team may clean, or just monitor.
