Jayne Bryant MS, Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
I am today putting in place a new 10-year Welsh Government Rent and Service Charge Standard 2026-2036 (the Rent Standard), providing immediate certainty and stability for social landlords and tenants across Wales. This long-term policy reflects our commitment to ensuring that social housing remains affordable, high-quality, and responsive to the needs of communities.
The Rent Standard has been shaped through extensive engagement with the sector and wider stakeholders, including Community Housing Cymru (CHC), the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA), and tenant representatives. Alongside the Rent Standard, we are also publishing the summary of responses to the public consultation, which shows broad support for our proposals to strengthen the social rent framework. Respondents also highlighted key areas for further development — including the need for an affordability framework, greater flexibility to support rent convergence, and improved data collection and transparency.
Affordability remains at the heart of our social rent policy and I have committed to embedding this further by developing an affordability framework, which will bring greater clarity and consistency to rent setting practice across Wales. I have listened to respondents and acknowledge the potential for rent convergence to generate additional rental income and promote greater consistency across the sector. However, convergence is inherently complex, with significant implications for affordability. That is why we will undertake further analysis alongside our work on affordability to inform consideration of whether, when, and how convergence could be pursued within the wider housing and fiscal landscape.
We will also continue to progress collaborative work to strengthen consistency of communication and practice around service charges, improving transparency and accountability to tenants. This work will complement our efforts to build on established good practice in raising wider awareness and understanding of the role of rent, and expand opportunities to embed tenant voice in rent-setting processes.
We will reflect calls for improved data collection and transparency by strengthening our monitoring and reporting mechanisms, taking the opportunity through the wider rent settlement agreement and the jointly agreed initiatives developed with Community Housing Cymru (CHC) and the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA), to strengthen transparency and accountability and improve learning and practice, through enhanced data sharing. We welcome the sector’s commitment to increasing transparency for tenants and are keen to explore, in collaboration with a small number of volunteer local authorities, how this could be further strengthened, including through the voluntary adoption of regulatory standards for tenant services.
Our new Rent Standard is more than a technical framework — it is a reflection of our values and our vision for housing in Wales. It recognises the vital role social landlords play in supporting individuals, families, and communities across Wales, and it reaffirms our commitment to working together to ensure social housing remains affordable for current and future tenants, and is fair, sustainable, and rooted in social justice.