Cornwall Council’s cabinet has agreed to increase rent for its council house and flats tenants by 4.8 per cent, which equates to around an extra £32 a month for a three-bedroom home.

While opposition councillors noted it was a “significant” rise which could lead to some tenants struggling in the long term, the council’s Independent portfolio holder for housing, Cllr Peter La Broy, said that even with the rent increases, Cornwall Council’s social housing rent would still be significantly less than other providers in the Duchy.

He also stressed that the increased rent revenue from the council’s 10,400 properties would help improve the condition of its housing stock and lead to reduced energy bills as a result.

The council’s cabinet voted in favour to increase rent by the CPI inflation marker plus one per cent for the 2026/27 financial year.

This is taken from CPI in September which was 3.8 per cent resulting in a rent increase for tenants of 4.8 per cent, broadly a £5 per week rent increase for social rent and £8 per week for an affordable rented three-bedroom home.

Approved as part of the council’s Housing Revenue Account Business Plan for 2026/27, Cllr La Broy said: “This is a balanced approach, recognising the need to invest in our homes whilst ensuring rents remain affordable.

“When we compare our rents against other registered providers in Cornwall and across the sector, our rents remain significantly lower.

“Our rent levels remain one of the lowest in the country, which is good for affordability but it does limit the pace and scale we can invest.”

Cllr Rob Parsonage, formerly the council’s Reform UK group leader and now deputy leader of the Cornish Independent Non-aligned Group, urged caution.

He said “a lot of people” living in council accommodation are on low incomes and giving them a 4.8 per cent increase “is significant and may cause problems.” Cllr Parsonage asked: “Why such a big increase?”

Cllr La Broy responded: “These things do have to run through consultation with our own renters and we have our own monitoring and governance panel which go through these changes.

“By and large, our tenants were happy to apply rental changes providing that they saw absolute difference in the way that we manage the stock.”

He added: “I want to remind ourselves that Cornwall Housing Ltd is not the only registered provider of social housing in Cornwall. This is just a broad brush average, but for a three-bedroom house we charge around about £95 a week, but other registered providers charge about £135 a week, so we are by far the lower cost of social housing.”

Louise Blackman, Reform UK councillor for Perranporth said: “I wanted to reinforce the point that £95 a week for a three-bedroom house, 4.8 per cent on top of that is quite sustainable, but over four years? By year four we’re going to have some people struggling.

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“You can say rent is relatively affordable, but if you’re on £95 a week, that’s not affordable.”