• If you pay your rent by Direct Debit, we’ll automatically start collecting the new amount from 26th March 2025. Many people find it easier to pay by Direct Debit for this reason. To set up a Direct Debit just call us on 01792 479200 and press option 1 for our Rent Management Team, they will be happy to help.  

• If you receive Universal Credit, you’ll need to complete a ‘to-do’ with your new rent details on or after 1st April 2025 within your online Universal Credit account. We recommend you check your Universal Credit statement to ensure the increase has been applied.  

• If you receive Housing Benefit payments and these are sent directly to Beacon Cymru, we’ll inform Housing Benefit of the new rent amount. However, you need to check the rent amount in your Housing Benefit letter matches the new rent in your Beacon Cymru letter, so please keep this letter safe. If these are different, please call us.  

• If you receive your Housing Benefit direct, you’ll need to inform your Local Authority (Council) that your rent is changing.  

• If you pay your rent another way, then from 1st April 2025 you’ll need to pay the new amount shown in your personal rent letter.  

If you are worried about paying your rent and/or charges, please talk to us at the earliest opportunity. We know making the first step to ask for help can be daunting but please do speak to us as soon as you become concerned about being able to pay. The earlier you talk to us the faster we can help.   

Although we are now Beacon Cymru, how you contact your Community Housing Officer hasn’t changed and our contact number for our Customer Services Team remains the same, you can call us on  01792 479200 and press option 1 to speak to our Rent Management Team who will be happy to discuss your options. 

More information on how we can help you can be found at https://www.coastalha.co.uk/i-cant-pay-my-rent/ 

Beacon is a social business with rents as the primary income stream. We don’t make profits for shareholders and all income pays for the buildings and services we provide. The costs of building and services typically increase annually, and we apply an annual uplift to the rent roll to ensure we can continue to provide safe buildings and quality services.     

Rents and service charges are reviewed annually in accordance with the Rents and Service Charges Standard 2020-2025 (rolled over to include 2026) set by Welsh Government and then approved by our Board in accordance with local policies.  

For 2025/26, the maximum increase to the total rent roll permitted by Welsh Government is 2.7%. In response to resident feedback, we tested the affordability of all our rents against local income levels (called a ‘Living Rent’). Tested against average incomes by Local Authority area 100% of our general needs properties are affordable including both rent and service charges.  

Beacon aims to provide safe, quality homes for less than you’d pay a private landlord.  

On 2nd January 2025 Coastal Housing and RHA Wales merged to form Beacon Cymru.

As our annual rent setting calculations are worked out before this date, your rent and service charge were set by the Board of either Coastal Housing or RHA Wales.

However, the rent increase across all properties was approved at 2.7% for 2025/26 by both Boards. 

Rent pays for services and work that ensures compliance with building safety needs, day-to-day repairs and longer-term maintenance such as replacement kitchen and window programmes and work to improve the energy efficiency of home  

The rent also pays for Beacon staff and contractors and the services they provide. It also enables the repayment of loans to build and maintain homes.

For every £100 of rent/service charge we spend:

Beacon aims to provide safe, quality homes at rent levels that are affordable to local communities. Rents are reviewed annually in accordance with limits set by Welsh Government.    

We recently asked all residents their views on how we should set rents in Beacon Cymru. 77% of those who responded said we should have the same rent policy for all properties in Beacon Cymru (formerly Coastal and RHA Wales residents). This doesn’t mean the same changes would be applied but the same factors and principles would be applied. For example, the average incomes for the local area are used to understand if rents are affordable and these differ from area to area.

Beacon’s board make the final decision on rent setting, ensuring there has been affordability testing, resident engagement and that any changes are both within Welsh Government limits and support the needs of the financial business plan. 

The animation at the top of this page explains more.  

No. Welsh Government provides rent control for ‘social rent’ properties through the Rent and Service Charge Standard. This standard runs to 2025 and permits rents to be increased by a maximum of September Consumer Prices Index (CPI) +1% (in aggregate) as long as a number of conditions are met. However, if CPI falls outside of the range 0% to 3%, Welsh Government ‘calls in’ the decision for that year.    

For 2025/26 rents, Welsh Government called in the decision and capped the maximum rent increase at +2.7% overall. You can read more about this here 

 *CPI is published by the Office for National Statistics. It measures the average change from month to month in the prices of goods and services purchased by most households in the UK. The government uses the CPI as the basis for its inflation target and for uprating of state pensions and state benefits.    

You have told us that transparency of service charges is important to you and this is an area where you gave lower satisfaction rates when asked whether these provided value for money. We are currently undertaking an indepth piece of work to further understand individual service charges and to look for efficiencies. To start this work, we sought advice on service charge terms and conditions which confirmed that for most residents the service charges are fixed, with variable terms provided to around 400 households. We intend to be more transparent with you about service charges and will keep you up to date as this project progresses. In the meantime, we have frozen most service charges for 2025/26. We anticipate this review will lead to some reductions and where there are increases where possible these will increased over a number of years. 

We review and change service charges each financial year, which runs from April to March. The reviewed service charge will be a fair proportion of the costs likely to be incurred by us in providing the services for the forthcoming service charge year.

For fixed service charges, any difference from the actual costs incurred by Beacon in providing the services and other items, compared to the fixed service charge paid by you will be paid or retained by us.

For variable service charges, at the end of the financial year, Beacon will look at the actual costs of proving the service and  the amount residents have paid during the year.  We will then send you a summary of the accounts within 6 months of the year end.

Where we have spent less on providing the services than we have charged you, there will be a surplus on your Service Charge Statement. This is also known as an underspend.

Where we have spent more on providing the services than we have charged you, there will be a deficit on your Service Charge Statement. This is also known as an overspend.

This amount will either be carried forwards and applied to your service charges the following year or invoiced /refunded accordingly as per the terms stated in your Occupation Contract, Lease or Transfer Deed.

Many of the properties Beacon own and manage are not defined by the term ‘social rent’ and therefore are not subject to Welsh Governments’ Rent and Service Charge Standard. This includes extra care housing, supported housing, intermediate rent properties, Welsh Housing Partnership properties, etc. These rents are set by Beacon and we have also capped increases 2.7%    

Shared ownership, leasehold and ground rent increases are typically in line with the specified contract terms.

We regularly review our Rent Setting Policy and, in response to resident feedback, are now prioritising testing the affordability of rents against local income levels (called a ‘Living Rent’). If you would like to be part of this group, please call us on 01792 479200 or email us at ask@coastalha.co.uk and ask to be added.    

We are establishing a method for regular feedback from residents on service charges, to gather scheme specific feedback on flexible service charges.  

Our estates team carry out different tasks at each scheme and this will depend on a number of factors such as the size of the external grounds, if there are any shrubbed/planted areas, bin stores and bin areas, and whether there are internal areas that our estates team may clean, or just monitor. Some of the services they provide are below: 

• Grass cutting
• Maintenance of planted areas
• Weeding
• Removing leaves, debris in larger areas
• Introducing new planted/shrubbed areas
• Litter picking
• Cleaning of internal areas
• Bins put our for collection & then brought back in
• Keeping bin areas clean and tidy
• Power washing
• Chemical cleaning of paths etc
• Meter readings where needed
• Lift checks
• Checking of communal areas
• Dealing with issues that may arise on schemes
• Dealing with and accompanying contractors.

You may also see members of the wider Estates Team on site when we do some larger projects on schemes.