The Government wants to make sure rent is fair. That means:

• People living in similar homes in the same area should pay about the same rent.
• It doesn’t matter if the landlord is the council or a housing association.

To do this, the Government made a rule to help work out what rent should be. They looked at:

• How much your home was worth at a certain time,
• How many bedrooms it has,
• How much people earn in Essex,
• Where your home is.

This helped them set a target rent – the amount they think is fair.

We then checked if the rent people are paying is higher or lower than the target rent. If it’s different, we may need to change it.

But don’t worry – the Government has rules to stop rent going up or down too much in one year.

• Rent can’t go up by more than £2.17 a week plus inflation.
• Rent can’t go down by more than £2.17 a week minus inflation.

This is because we charge rent over 48 weeks in a year.

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