All councils must use the same system for working out council housing rent.

We work out your rent based on:

• Average earnings in Kirklees - lower average local earnings will mean lower rents. This means that tenants in Kirklees will pay less than tenants living in London.
• Property values - a tenant living in an area where property values are high will pay more rent than someone who lives in the same type of property in an area where property values are lower.
• Number of bedrooms - the more bedrooms your home has, the more rent you will pay.

The method that the government has said we must use to work out rents means that two thirds of the rent is based on local earnings, and about one third is based on local property values.

We will charge any increase in rents arising from this system in equal amounts over ten years - this means that by 2012 tenants living in the same type of property in the same area will pay the same rent. Also, the government has limited any increase in rent to no more than inflation plus £2 per week.

Although the rules about how much rent we can charge are strict, we are allowed to make a small 5% change in rent levels to allow for such things as a change in property values.

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