Councillors made the decision this week after hearing that 69% of tenants responding to a survey strongly agreed/agreed with a proposed rent freeze.

The decision means rents won’t rise in April and will stay the same for a year.

The meeting was also told that unfortunately some of the planned improvement works to tenants’ homes had been unable to be progressed due to COVID-19 restrictions in 2020/21.

However, no improvement works will be cancelled and nobody will be moved out of any programme work. A revised investment plan will come before councillors next month.

Councillor Craig Holden, place committee convenor, said: “This has been a challenging year for all. This decision is in recognition of the struggle of many of our tenants; not increasing the rents will hopefully go some way to relieve the financial pressure so many have endured as a result of the pandemic.”