Labour’s LHA rates freeze will ‘hurt most vulnerable tenants’ says NRLA
Comments follow Minister Liz Kendall's announcement that a controversial freeze of local housing allowance rates will last until at least April 2026.
A freeze of the local housing allowance rate (LHA) announced this week seperately from the Budget will hurt some of the most vulnerable tenants, claims landlord group the NRLA.
Protecting the vulnerable
Chris Norris, NRLA Policy Director says: “Whilst the Budget spoke about protecting vulnerable people, it failed to confirm what we now know – that housing benefit rates will be frozen as of next year.
“It makes no sense whatsoever to provide support for housing costs that bear no resemblance to rents as they actually are.
Announcements today will make it hardest of all for those claiming benefits to access and sustain tenancies in the rented sector.”
“Coupled with tax hikes on the supply of homes to rent, announcements today will make it hardest of all for those claiming benefits to access and sustain tenancies in the rented sector.”
As reported in The Neg, even after Jeremy Hunt had ‘unfrozen’ the rate in 2023, the NRLA said that the lack of debate about the gap between Local Housing Allowance (LHA) payments and private rents was ‘troubling’.
At the time, it had grown to the extent that no properties on the private rental market were affordable for low-income renters in certain parts of the country.
Many commentators were surprised by Labour’s controversial stance and are worried that rapidly rising rents will mean that the new freeze will be even more damaging. It is why the NRLA had been calling on the government to: “confirm that housing benefit rates will permanently track market rents”.
