Recommendation 22

The failure of local housing allowance (LHA) rates to keep pace with market rents is quite obviously making the private rented sector even less affordable for many people who are only there because the social housing sector has been cut back and can no longer accommodate them. If the Government believes the PRS is the right place for those on the lowest incomes, it should at least make sure housing benefit does what it was designed to do and covers benefit recipients’ housing costs. For this reason, it should increase LHA rates to realign them with the 30th percentile in each broad rental market area, and commit to conducting a review as soon as possible into whether they should once more be aligned with the 50th percentile.