Recommendation 21

We asked DWP what analysis it had done on the extent to which homelessness is impacted by LHA rates not allowing people to afford rents in their area. It explained that the decision, for example, to freeze the LHA rate again for 2025–26 was not taken in isolation. It went on to say that while increasing LHA rates would clearly have given tenants more money to pay their rents, there were other considerations. These included the interaction between LHA rates and other benefits such as universal credit, the household support fund and discretionary housing payments. But, when challenged, DWP could not tell us what the consequences would have been elsewhere in the system if ministers had decided to spend more on the LHA.29