No increase in regulator’s fees from April

Social landlords in England have been informed that they will not be facing an increase in their fees payable to the regulator in the next financial year.

The Regulator of Social Housing has written to all registered providers saying the annual fee for next year will not be higher than £5.37 per unit. It currently charges £5.42 per unit, to all social landlords with a minimum of 1,000 homes.

Landlords with fewer than 1,000 homes are charged a flat annual fee of £300 and this is also being frozen for next year. Regulatory fees were first introduced in 2017.

The regulator’s Finance and Corporate Services Director Richard Peden, explained the background to the decision, as:

“This is in recognition both of the above inflation fee increase this year (20/21) and the resource pressures that providers face responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

He added:

“We will publish our annual fees statement in due course once we have received confirmation of our Grant in Aid budget from Government and will provide further guidance on fee per unit levels once statistical data returns have been fully analysed.”

By Patrick Mooney, Editor