Council homes
The council is landlord to about 11,885 homes. Their rents and service charges go into an account of their own, the Housing Revenue Account. By law it pays only for council homes: council tax cannot top it up, and rents cannot pay for other services.
Where the money goes, 2026/27
Rent (£89.3m), service charges and other income bring in £113.0m. The account must balance, so all of it is budgeted.
Show the budget as a table
| 2025/26 | 2026/27 | |
|---|---|---|
| Money in | ||
| Rent | £85.2m | £89.3m |
| Service charges | £19.1m | £19.8m |
| Other income | £4.0m | £3.9m |
| Money out | ||
| Interest on debt and wear and tear on the homes | £37.2m | £41.7m |
| Running the housing service | £30.7m | £26.7m |
| Repairs and maintenance | £24.6m | £25.1m |
| The council's central services | £6.8m | £7.0m |
| Finance, including the provision for unpaid rent | £4.6m | £6.7m |
| Planning new homes | £1.7m | £3.2m |
| Rent lost while homes stand empty | £1.6m | £1.3m |
| Kept back for the unexpected | £1.1m | £1.3m |
Council rents and private rents
Weekly rent from April 2026, and what the council says the same home would cost to rent privately in the borough.
Private rents are the council’s estimate from the Office for National Statistics’ private rent figures. Each 1% on council rents brings in about £0.9m a year.
Building work on council homes, 2026/27 to 2029/30
Open an area to see its schemes. Amounts are for the four years 2026/27 to 2029/30, as the council’s report rounds them.
Repairs and safety in existing council homes£237.2m
- Major refurbishment of blocks£21.0m
- Fire safety work£13.9m
- Fire safety work on complex blocks£27.1m
- Lifts£7.6m
- Heating£8.4m
- Electrical safety£13.5m
- Other safety work£23.4m
- Getting empty homes ready to let£16.3m
- Other improvements£52.5m
- Staff who run the works£30.2m
- Larger repairs paid from the building budget£23.3m
New council homes£50.2m
- Hartopp and Lannoy£0.9m
- Farm Lane£1.2m
- Avonmore (council homes)£44.3m
- Lillie Road£3.8m
Regeneration£29.9m
- Edith Summerskill House£28.2m
- Old Laundry Yard£1.6m
Show every scheme, year by year
| 2026/27 | 2027/28 | 2028/29 | 2029/30 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Repairs and safety in existing council homes | |||||
| Major refurbishment of blocks | £4.6m | £4.6m | £5.7m | £6.1m | £21.0m |
| Fire safety work | £2.3m | £2.5m | £4.3m | £4.7m | £13.9m |
| Fire safety work on complex blocks | £18.2m | £8.9m | – | – | £27.1m |
| Lifts | £4.0m | £2.5m | £0.5m | £0.6m | £7.6m |
| Heating | £2.2m | £2.0m | £2.0m | £2.1m | £8.4m |
| Electrical safety | £3.8m | £3.5m | £3.0m | £3.3m | £13.5m |
| Other safety work | £4.2m | £3.6m | £7.5m | £8.1m | £23.4m |
| Getting empty homes ready to let | £4.6m | £4.1m | £3.7m | £4.0m | £16.3m |
| Other improvements | £2.5m | £15.1m | £20.5m | £14.5m | £52.5m |
| Staff who run the works | £8.0m | £7.3m | £7.1m | £7.7m | £30.2m |
| Larger repairs paid from the building budget | £4.2m | £4.1m | £4.8m | £10.2m | £23.3m |
| New council homes | |||||
| Hartopp and Lannoy | £0.9m | – | – | – | £0.9m |
| Farm Lane | £1.2m | – | – | – | £1.2m |
| Avonmore (council homes) | £13.4m | £14.6m | £11.6m | £4.7m | £44.3m |
| Lillie Road | £3.8m | – | – | – | £3.8m |
| Regeneration | |||||
| Edith Summerskill House | £9.4m | £9.4m | £9.4m | – | £28.2m |
| Old Laundry Yard | £1.6m | – | – | – | £1.6m |
| All schemes, as the report totals them | £88.9m | £82.3m | £79.9m | £66.1m | £317.2m |
How it is paid for
The report rounds every figure, so these add up to £317.3m against the £317.2m of work.
Borrowing for council homes still to repay, end of year: £563.3m at the start of 2026/27, and £670.2m forecast at the end of 2029/30 (up £106.9m). The council calls this its capital financing requirement.
Show the funding and debt year by year
| 2026/27 | 2027/28 | 2028/29 | 2029/30 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grants | £4.6m | £3.5m | £3.4m | – | £11.5m |
| Payments from developers | £6.0m | £6.0m | £6.0m | – | £18.0m |
| Selling land, buildings and homes | £70.1m | £7.6m | £2.8m | £2.9m | £83.4m |
| Set aside from rents for major repairs | £5.5m | £21.8m | £18.1m | £18.8m | £64.2m |
| From yearly budgets and reserves | £2.7m | £9.8m | £2.7m | £8.0m | £23.2m |
| Borrowing | – | £33.6m | £47.0m | £36.5m | £117.0m |
| 2026/27 | 2027/28 | 2028/29 | 2029/30 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| End of year | £563.3m | £586.8m | £633.8m | £670.2m |
The next ten years
The council’s ten-year plan for council homes includes £675.1m of building work, 198 new homes, and £49m over the first four years to make homes warmer and cut their carbon. Borrowing per council home rises from £49,100 to £72,500 by 2035/36; interest falls from 27% to 24% of rent income as rents rise. Repairs this year come to about £3,000 a home.
Pledges these schemes pay towards
Where a scheme is what a manifesto pledge names. Whether the pledge is kept is judged on its card.
- Hartopp and Lannoy, £0.9mLabour pledge: “Build over 10,000 genuinely affordable homes for local people”
- Farm Lane, £1.2mLabour pledge: “Build over 10,000 genuinely affordable homes for local people”
- Avonmore (council homes), £44.3mLabour pledge: “Build over 10,000 genuinely affordable homes for local people”
- Lillie Road, £3.8mLabour pledge: “Build over 10,000 genuinely affordable homes for local people”
Pledges about housing
Every party’s housing pledges, and where each one stands.
About these figures
The budget, rents and ten-year plan are from The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Budget 2026/27, Rents and Service Charges 2026/27 and HRA 10 Year Business Plan (report to Cabinet, 9 February 2026; Cabinet pack pages 157 to 178), agreed by Cabinet on 9 Feb 2026: Table 1 (page 164), paragraphs 13 to 25 (pages 165 to 167) and Appendices 1, 3 and 5 (pages 170 to 174). The building work is from the four-year capital programme.