Only 5% of properties advertised on Zoopla have been affordable for LHA claimants.
The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) has welcomed the Parliamentary Work and Pensions Select Committee’s call for housing benefit rates to be reviewed in line with housing costs.
Ben Beadle (pictured), chief executive of NRLA, noted that the proposal has been a longstanding call from the NRLA and others.
Beadle said that tenants and responsible landlords are often left unsure if rents can be covered from one year to the next because of the housing benefit system, adding that what is supposed to be a safety net has caused frustration and anxiety.
“All parties need to provide certainty for those reliant on benefits that they can keep a roof over their heads by ensuring rates permanently remain linked to market rents,” he commented.
In the committee’s report on benefit levels, it urged the government to commit to uprating local housing allowance (LHA) annually so that it could retain its value at the 30th percentile of rents in a broad rental market area.
Since 2020, LHA rates have been frozen and the proportion of new private rental properties featured on Zoopla, affordable for those in receipt of the LHA, has fallen to 5% from 23%, the NRLA said.
Earlier this year, the government announced that the freeze on rates would be lifted this coming April.
The LHA rate will again cover the bottom 30% of rents in any given area. However, the Institute for Public Policy Research has said that even when the rate is unfrozen, over 800,000 households on universal credit will keep facing shortfalls between their housing support payments and their rents.
Currently, housing benefit rates are set to be frozen again from 2025.
