Maidstone has a council housing account again, first time since 2004: 56 to 103 homes in it, rents assumed at £148 a week, and how far off 1,000 homes it is.

Maidstone Borough Council reopened its Housing Revenue Account on Thursday, 1 October. It is the formal step that makes the council a social landlord again. The last time it had one was 2004, when its homes were transferred to Maidstone Housing Trust, now Golding Homes.

Cabinet agreed the move on 16 September (Cabinet decision, Re-Opening the Housing Revenue Account). The council announced it on Wednesday evening (Maidstone Borough Council, 30 September 2026).

What a Housing Revenue Account is

It is a ring-fenced account for a council’s own social housing: rents and service charges in, management, repairs and loan interest out. By law it cannot be subsidised from the council’s general budget, and it cannot prop that budget up either. It must not go into deficit (officer report to Cabinet).

A council only has to open one once it owns more than 1,000 qualifying homes. Maidstone is nowhere near that. It chose to open early, the report says, so the systems are in place before its building programme lands. Every new council home will now go straight into the account.

How many homes are in it

The two official sources give different counts, and we report both.

  • The Cabinet papers say 56 homes transfer on 1 October. They are affordable-rent and specialised supported housing the council already lets.
  • The council’s announcement says the account opens with 103 affordable homes in management.

The papers were written at the start of September. Since then the council has taken handover of 43 flats at Len Martin Court and Wilberforce House, which we reported on 11 September. That would take 56 to 99, close to the announced figure. The council has not published the reconciliation, so treat that as our reading, not its explanation.

The announcement lists 63 more council homes under construction:

  • 28 at Britannia House, Granville Road
  • 12 on land in Granville Road
  • 23 at Corben’s Yard Phase 2, Tonbridge Road

The papers add that the council has a further 332 homes with planning permission, including the Maidstone East and Springfield sites.

What the rent will be

The account’s 30-year business plan assumes these average weekly rents in 2026/27 (HRA Business Plan, Appendix 1):

Tenure Average weekly rent, 2026/27 Assumed for 2030/31
Social rent £148.05 £180.92
Affordable rent £230.01 £292.47

The plan assumes inflation of 3.5% a year and affordable rents rising at inflation plus 1%. These are planning assumptions, not rents set for any tenant. Existing tenants’ rents and tenancies do not change this year, Cabinet’s decision says.

How far from 1,000 homes

The council’s target is more than 1,000 social and affordable homes. Its business plan shows where that stands.

Bar chart of progress towards Maidstone Borough Council's 1,000 council homes: 6% complete, 8% on site, 38% plots acquired, 31% schemes identified, 16% not yet identified
Most of the target is still land, not homes. Chart by Maidstone Live
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On those figures, 6% of the 1,000 homes are complete and 8% are being built. Another 38% are on plots the council has bought. 31% are on schemes it has identified, and 16% have no site yet.

The money

The council has moved £500,000 of its unallocated reserves into the new account, about three months of income, averaged over the next five years.

The business plan projects rent income of £580,000 this year, rising to £6.6 million by 2030/31 as homes complete. That later figure includes £708,000 from commercial premises and car parking. Borrowing will rise “significantly above the current levels”, the plan says.

Interest is the pressure point. The opening loans are charged at the council’s average borrowing cost of 1.79%. The plan assumes 4% from next year. On that basis it projects a £233,000 deficit in 2029/30, covered from the account’s reserves, before a return to surplus the year after.

The council is also absorbing a subsidy. Where its homes cost more to build than their value at social rents, the gap is met from its Housing Investment Fund, which stands at £15.5 million. The charge for the first transfer is estimated at £273,000.

Who oversees it

From 1 October a new Housing Policy Advisory Committee of councillors replaces the Housing and Community Cohesion committee and focuses only on housing, the officer report says.

Councillor Simon Wales, Cabinet Member for Housing and Homelessness, said: “Reopening the Housing Revenue Account gives us another important tool to help meet that need.”

What it means for you

Nothing changes for current tenants of the council’s homes this year. Your tenancy, rent and service charges stay as they are.

If you are on the housing register, the account does not create homes by itself. What matters is the 63 under construction and the 332 with permission, and how fast they are built.

Nothing in the decision touches Golding Homes tenancies. Golding remains the landlord for its tenants.

Sources