Like other social housing providers, we’ll be increasing our rents by Consumer Price Index (CPI) +1 for most customers. The CPI is one of the UK’s main measures of inflation – it measures changes in the price of goods, like food, fuel, gas and electricity.
Why are we increasing rents?
It’s always a very difficult decision to increase our rents and not one we take lightly.
As a profit-for-purpose organisation, all rental income is reinvested back into homes and services.
The rent increase enables us to continue to provide high levels of service and investment in our homes, ensuring they continue to be well-maintained, healthy and safe. It also means we can build more much-needed affordable homes and continue to ensure we meet national environmental sustainability targets.
Are service charges increasing?
If customers pay a service charge, the letter we’ve sent to also details these costs. Where customers are seeing an increase, this is mainly to allow for increased fire safety measures and utility costs as well as National Living Wage increases which are outside of Karbon’s control.
What support is available?
We very much appreciate that some of our customers may be struggling, especially with the cost of living, and we’re here to help if you need us.
Our Money Matters Teamoffers a personalised and confidential advice service to help with all things money-related such as:
Universal Credit
Debt
Appealing a benefits decision
Budgeting
Benefit checks and applications
Energy advice and grants
Water charges
The team can provide advice in person, over the phone or via email and can be contacted by using our online form or calling 0808 164 0111.
Over the Christmas period, payments made online between 24 December and 1 January will not show in your balance or appear in your online account until on or after 2 January 2026.
To avoid paying more than once, please check with your bank before making another payment.
We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience. The good news is that we’re working to make sure online payments update instantly in the New Year.
⚠️ Amber weather warning – service update
The Met Office has issued an amber weather warning for parts of the North East of England on Thursday with frequent wintry showers and significant snow expected. This may cause disruption.
Please bear with us if it takes a little longer than usual to reach you. The driving conditions are challenging, and the safety of our customers and colleagues is our top priority.
If you need to report an emergency repair, something that poses an immediate risk to your health, safety, or security, our out of hours service is available.
Rent and service charges are reviewed each year, and we’ve recently written to customers to explain the changes from 1 April 2024.
We’ve also put together the following questions and answers to help with any queries you may have.
How do we set our rent?
We set our rent in line with government policy and guidelines from the Regulator of Social Housing.
Like other social housing providers, we’ll be increasing our rents by Consumer Price Index (CPI) +1 for most customers. The CPI is one of the UK’s main measures of inflation – it measures changes in the price of goods, like food, fuel, gas and electricity.
Why are we increasing rents?
It’s always a very difficult decision to increase our rents and not one we take lightly.
As a profit-for-purpose organisation, all rental income is reinvested back into homes and services.
The rent increase enables us to continue to provide high levels of service and investment in our homes, ensuring they continue to be well-maintained, healthy and safe. It also means we can build more much-needed affordable homes and continue to ensure we meet national environmental sustainability targets.
Are service charges increasing?
If customers pay a service charge, the letter we’ve sent to also details these costs. Where customers are seeing an increase, this is mainly to allow for increased fire safety measures and utility costs as well as National Living Wage increases which are outside of Karbon’s control.
What support is available?
We very much appreciate that some of our customers may be struggling, especially with the cost of living, and we’re here to help if you need us.
Our Money Matters Team offers a personalised and confidential advice service to help with all things money-related such as:
Debt
Appealing a benefits decision
Budgeting
Benefit checks and applications
Energy advice and grants
Water charges
The team can provide advice in person, over the phone or via email and can be contacted by using our online form or calling 0808 164 0111.
More news
Karbon Homes partners with local primary school to launch affordable food club in Consett
A primary school in Consett, County Durham, has partnered with North East housing association Karbon Homes to launch an affordable food hub for the benefit of the local community.
Christmas Holiday Hours 25/26