Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department spent on housing benefits in the last financial year; and how much of that was spent on housing provided by (a) local authorities, (b) other social housing providers and (c) private sector landlords.

In 2022/23 the Department spent £28.97 billion on Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Housing Element combined.

£15.00 billion was spent on Housing Benefit and £13.97 billion was spent on Universal Credit Housing Element. The quoted Housing Benefit expenditure excludes expenditure funded by Local Authorities.

Housing Benefit expenditure by tenure in 2022/23:

1. £4.05 billion spent on Local Authority accommodation.
2. £7.17 billion spent on accommodation provided by Registered Social Landlords.
3. £3.78 billion spent on private rented sector accommodation.

Universal Credit Housing Element expenditure by tenure in 2022/23:

1. £7.20 billion spent on social rented sector accommodation. The available data does not allow us to breakdown expenditure on social rented sector into accommodation provided by (a) local authorities and (b) other social housing providers.
2. Available data does not allow us to split out expenditure on accommodation provided by (b) other social housing providers.
3. £5.95 billion spent on private rented sector accommodation.
4. £0.83 billion spent on other/unknown tenancy types.

1. The expenditure figures include only amounts subsidised by the Department for Work and Pension and do not include housing expenditure funded by local authorities.
2. Figures may not sum due to rounding.