Lifting LHA rate would aid homelessness prevention push

The Local Government Association has claimed that more than 100,000 people would be protected from financial hardship and homelessness if Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates were lifted to cover the cost of renting.

Council leaders are calling on the government to use the Budget to lift LHA rates to help provide people with more stable housing and tackle in-work poverty, homelessness and rough sleeping.

Currently, hundreds of thousands of eligible private renters in England receive LHA in order to help them cover the cost of their rent, with the amount they receive calculated based on rents in their local area.

Rates have been frozen since 2016, when they covered the cheapest third of private rents (30th percentile), but the government has confirmed it will end the LHA freeze from April this year and rates will increase in line with inflation.

However, LGA research claims that, as rents have continued to rise over the past four years, the LHA rate now covers just 13 per cent of market rents on average as a result. This means that the LHA rate now available for nine out of 10 private renters across 279 local areas across the country is lower than their rent, meaning no properties are available to those entitled to full support with their housing costs.

The freeze has also meant councils have had to divert funding away from long-term approaches to homelessness prevention in order to tackle immediate financial hardship and help people keep their tenancies.

If LHA rates were restored to pre-2016 levels on average, the research for the LGA estimates that: an average council would need to house 300 fewer people in temporary accommodation across the country, or 101,000 nationally, and the average cost of using temporary accommodation for a council would reduce by between £1.4 million and £3 million; and the average council would see 650 more households able to cover the cost of their rent with their LHA payments, or 220,000 nationally. This would help reduce financial hardship on them when trying to meet their housing costs.

Richard Watts, chair of the LGA’s Resources Board, said:  “Scrapping the LHA rate freeze this year is a step in the right direction by the government to help provide much-needed security to tenants, but more needs to be done. Over the past four years LHA rates have not kept pace with the rising cost of renting. It has left many people facing a growing gap between their incomes and the cost of rent. This has pushed households into financial hardship, in-work poverty and homelessness, and driven demand for councils’ housing, homelessness and local welfare services.
 
“Everyone deserves a decent, secure and affordable home and more needs to be done to protect tenants, including the most vulnerable, from falling into the trap of financial instability. By restoring LHA rates to cover at least the lowest third of market rents, the government can deliver more of the security that tenants need and support households who need help to meet their housing costs.”

Councils are also calling on government to properly recognise and resource local safety net services, and provide them with sustainable, long-term funding and powers to resume their historic role as major builder of affordable homes so they can play a lead role in helping it meet its commitment to end homelessness and rough sleeping by 2024.