Council house tenants in Southampton will see their rent increase by almost eight per cent – a move which has been criticised for putting more pressure on the city’s most vulnerable people.

Southampton City Council has voted in favour of the 7.7 per cent increase – the maximum allowed – which will mean that tenants will pay an extra £7.15 on average weekly rents of around £92.75 and £10.58 on average weekly rents of £151.16.

Rents for shared ownership homes will also see an increase. Weekly service charges won’t increase, but the heating charge will increase by 6.5 per cent.

The council owns around 16,000 houses and in 2022/23, it agreed to freeze any increase in social housing charges.

However, councillors were told the decision significantly reduced the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) resources, which means a loss of £157 million to the budget.

The landlord-controlled heating (LCH) account, which did not increase either, was impacted by rising energy costs during 2022/23, which resulted in a deficit of £3.5 million.

For that reason, alongside the 7.7 per cent increase in rents, the council agreed to increase heating charges by 6.5 per cent in 2024 and an estimated five per cent in 2025/26 and 2026/27.

According to the report, 65 per cent of consultation respondents agreed on increasing housing rents, while 21 per cent disagreed. However, of tenants of a council-owned home, 39 per cent agreed with the proposal and 50 per cent disagreed.

Leader of the council, Councillor Lorna Fielker, said that the capital programme, including an investment of £280 million, will focus on “improving the quality of the homes, energy efficiency, ensuring safe living, and supporting communities”.

Cllr Fielker said: “The priority for this administration is to ensure that we can provide more affordable homes in Southampton. My preference is always to deliver ourselves, and this is being humped by changes in the way our ability to build new homes could be funded.

“It takes time and resources to change from one delivery mechanism to another."

Leader of the Conservative Party, Cllr Daniel Fitzhenry, said: “Let’s be really clear, you won’t like this, even though part of you will because you vote for it. If we would run the council, we would be freezing council rents again. You might not like it, officers probably wouldn’t like it, but the people that do like it are the tenants, funny that?”

Councillor Peter Baillie said that despite how many houses the council could build, unless immigration is ‘actually controlled’, the ‘housing crisis’ won’t be solved. “They go hand in hand,” he said.