Yesterday, Stephen pushed the government to increase the Local Housing Allowance to support private renters facing soaring rents.
The Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is used to calculate the housing benefit that private renters receive, based on rents in their local area. The government froze the LHA in April 2020. Rents have risen on average 4% since then. In 2022, 57% of private renters reliant on housing benefit paid more in rent than they received in support. Crisis, a homelessness charity, claims “[the freeze] means people are stuck in temporary accommodation, unable to move on from homelessness.”
“[Raising rates] would benefit the public purse by over £2 billion because it would avoid councils resorting to more costly temporary accommodation,” Stephen said in a debate in parliament on the issue. “The government must stop turning a blind eye to this very, very serious problem.”