The National Residential Landlords Association has called for housing benefit rates to be permanently linked to the bottom 30% of rents during the duration of the next parliament.
During the last parliament the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate stayed at April 2020 levels until April 2024, causing market rents to get increasingly detached from the amount people could claim.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, this led to just 5% of private rental properties being affordable for those in receipt of LHA.
Ben Beadle, chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, said: “It is time to fix the broken housing benefit system once and for all. The lack of clarity about support in the future is causing insecurity and anxiety for renters and landlords alike. It undermines efforts to sustain tenancies and prevent homelessness in the first place.
“The lack of any pledges to address this issue by the main parties is unacceptable. The next government must confirm that housing benefit rates will permanently track market rents. This would provide the assurances needed that support would keep pace with the cost of housing.”
None of the main parties’ manifestos have pledged to permanently link housing benefit rates to the bottom 30% of rents for the duration of the next parliament, despite that being a recommendation made by the cross-party Work and Pensions Select Committee.
Even with the LHA rate unfrozen, over 800,000 households on Universal Credit will continue to face shortfalls between their housing support payment and the rent they pay.
The picture is set to worsen given that LHA rates are due to be frozen from April 2025.
