Local Housing Allowance: Freeze

Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe Excerpts

Wednesday 4th November 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, there is certainly a relationship—at least, we assume so—between the amount of money the state will spend supporting housing and how much landlords charge. That cashes out in various ways, as I have just been trying to describe. The reality is that a significant number of people in the private rented sector who receive housing support, either housing benefit or universal credit, apply and get help from their councils through discretionary housing payments and the wider crisis and resilience fund. It will carry on being there to support them, and they can use that to help to pay their rents.

[Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe (Lab)]

My Lords, bearing in mind what the Minister has said about the Government’s priorities, what assessment has she made of the short-term case for restoring local housing allowance to the 30th percentile, in order to make the private rented sector more accessible while the country builds the social homes we know are needed to meet sustainable long-term housing need?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

We will continue to keep the rate of the local housing allowance under review. To give the House a sense of the cost involved, in April 2024 there was a one-year increase in the local housing allowance; that cost an extra £1.2 billion in 2024–25. Over five years, that one rise will cost over £7 billion. I am extremely sensitive to the points being raised. The Government are investing money through a long-term crisis and resilience fund and through local discretionary support to help meet the shortfalls. But in the end, the Government’s priority is to tackle emergency problems in the short term, tackle emergency accommodation, tackle temporary accommodation, invest extensively in tackling homelessness, and provide extra support while the market is sorted.