Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households in the private rented sector are in receipt of housing benefit in payment; how many of those households have rents which exceed the local housing allowance (LHA); what the median average gap is between the rent and the LHA for those households where rent exceeds the LHA , for each local authority area in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales, for the most recent period for which data is available.

The information requested is in the attachment.

In April 2020 we increased Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local rents, costing nearly £1 billion and providing 1.5 million claimants with around £600 more housing support in 2020/21 than they would otherwise have received. Local Housing Allowance rates have been maintained at their increased levels in 2021/22 and will remain at those levels for 2022/23.