Council home rents in Godalming are set to rise by 1.25% from April if figures agreed by councillors are given the final go-ahead next month.

Waverley's Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee, meeting on Thursday, agreed the increase was reasonable. The recommendation will now go before the Executive on Februay 9th and then the full council meeting on February 23rd for final sign-off.

There will also be rises in other charges, with the cost of renting a garage from the council going up by 50p a week, excluding VAT, and a 30p per week increase in the service charge plus a 50p a week rise in energy costs for tenants in senior living accommodation.

All the changes will come into effect from April 1st.

Housing Finance Manager Lindsey Kennedy told the committee that Waverley was set to get 153 new homes – a net gain of 79 – over next five years.

"We are losing 15 properties a year through Right to Buy," she said. "That has a direct impact on our income stream."

The housing budget currently has reserves of £48.71m, but "We do have plans for this money," she said.

"One of the key reasons that we have proposed a rent increase is that we use this for capital reinvestment, not only for the core programme but also to pay for new housing development. If you see that in conjunction with the lost properties under Right to Buy that is really crucial."

The maximum rent rise the Government allows councils to impose is 1.5%.

Waverley's Housing Portoflio Holder, Councillor Anne-Marie Rosoman, told the committee that discussion about the proposed rise among councillors had been "robust", adding that the council's business plan had been affected by four years of rent decreases.

"In order to be able to carry on with our building programme to replace homes which are going to be lost to Right to Buy, to maintain the buildings and to run the capital programme, it's imperative that we have a rise," she said.

"We did want to recognise that Covid has had an effect on people's finances, rather than going for the maximum 1.5 – and we are a coalition at the end of the day, so as you would expect there was quite a robust discussion about the amount involved and we all came up with slightly different views – but at the end of the day we do think that the whole programme is really worth supporting."

Terry Daubney from Waverley Tenants Panel said that tenants wouldn't be happy with any increase "at whatever level".

"Many tenants have struggled over the last year to pay their current rate of rent, and any increase again will mean that there will be more people on that list of arrears," he said.

"We've accepted that we've had to have a reduced maintenance programme over the year: things are taking much longer, so people will be looking at it that the service has not improved, that the service has been difficult to accept, but we do understand that there is a need to plan for the future.

"It's unwelcome, but I can understand why."