On 11 February 2025, we agreed the rent and charge increases for the 2025 and 2026 financial year. You will receive a letter from us giving formal notice of your individual charges.
Help is available if you are struggling to pay your rent.
The increases are:
- weekly and monthly rent: 2.7%
- garage rent: 5% or 5% plus £1
Your letter will inform you of any service charges associated with your property and the changes to these.
How your rent is calculated
Council housing rents are calculated using government guidelines.
Annual rent increases for local authority landlords, such as Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch Council, are currently set as CPI (Consumer Price Index) plus 1% by the government. This year is based on the September 2024 CPI of 1.7%.
How to pay your council home rent and service charge
Find out how to pay your council home rent and service charge.
Cheque refunds
We have introduced a new policy to stop all cheque payments, this includes housing rent refunds.
From 30 April 2024, if a housing rent refund is required, you will need to provide bank details in order for the refund to be paid directly into your account. If you are uncomfortable giving details over the phone, a form can be posted but this will slow down the refund process.
For tenants claiming Universal Credit (UC)
If you are on universal credit, please update your housing costs element following the instructions below. Housing costs will be paid directly to you as part of your universal credit award. You will need to contact the Income Team to set up a payment arrangement.
Log in to your universal credit account. From the home page, go to "Report a change of circumstances", then select "where you live and what it costs".
Enter your rent details from your tenancy agreement:
- rent: enter the full amount (pounds and pence) per week
- service charges: enter the full amount (pounds and pence) per week
- number of rent free weeks: 0 per year
- name of landlord: for Bournemouth tenants, select BCP Council. For Poole tenants, select Poole Housing Partnership (PHP)
- start date: the date shown on your tenancy agreement or when you moved in
Once the Department of Work & Pensions has merged our 2 existing Universal Credit portals into 1, all Bournemouth and Poole tenants will have the same landlord - BCP Homes, for the purposes of claiming Universal Credit. We will update this page when that happens.
Poole tenants who receive Universal Credit
All Poole tenants who receive Universal Credit will need to make changes on their Universal Credit journal.
If you were receiving Universal Credit before 1 April, you will need to report a change of circumstances in your journal to confirm that you no longer have any rent-free weeks and provide your new weekly rent charges.
Even if you have already updated your journal with the new charges from 1 April, you will need to enter a change of circumstances to report that you have no rent-free weeks.
If you do not make this change, you will only be paid for 48 weeks this year and will go into rent arrears.
Universal Credit only pays 52 weeks they do not cover the 53rd week this year.
If you are receiving Universal Credit payments for the first time from 1 April or after, you can complete the 'confirm your housing costs’ to do list in your journal.
If you need any help, please call us on 0800 028 1870 and ask to speak to a member of the Income Team or Your Money Team.