Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made an assessment of (a) the effect of the local housing allowance cap on the affordability of rented accommodation in Central London and (b) the potential merits of further increasing that cap to allow a higher proportion of tenants to afford rented accommodation in Central London.

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates determine the maximum amount of housing benefit or universal credit housing costs available for renters in the private rented sector. LHA rates were increased in April 2020 to the 30^th percentile of local market rents costing almost £1 billion and providing 1.5 million claimants with around £600 more housing support per year than they would otherwise have received.

At the same time, we increased the national maximum caps, ensuring all rates including those in central and inner London received an increase. This year the monthly Central London rates were increased by:

In 2021/22 all LHA rates will be maintained at their increased level, meaning claimants renting in the private rented sector will continue to benefit from the significant increase in the rates applied this year.