No. Firstly, rents of homes transferred by the council to Poplar HARCA and Tower Hamlets Community Housing (THCH) have not risen faster than council rents. In fact the average rent for Poplar HARCA1 is lower than the council's average rent.

ESG says: And they got a lot of extra money to make that possible

Secondly, because the government is concerned about significant differentials in some parts of the country between the rents charged by Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and councils for similar sized properties, it is introducing a new policy of rent control and convergence.

It means that each organisation will be set a target rent by the government and over a 10 year period each RSL and council must change its rents to meet this (maximum) rent target. Some councils and RSLs will have to reduce their rents to meet this target, some will have to increase them, but in the end rents in social housing in any one area will be the same.