Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to ensure that Local Housing Allowance rates reflect rents in (a) rural and (b) urban areas.

In April 2024, Local Housing Allowance (LHA) increased to the 30^th percentile of local market rents for one year at a cost of £7bn over 5 years.

LHA rates are set within Broad Rental Market Areas (BRMAs), which are determined by rent officers at the Valuation Office Agency for England, Rent Officers Wales and Rent Services Scotland. There are 192 BRMAs across Great Britain.

A BRMA is an area within which a person could reasonably be expected to live with regard to facilities and services for the purposes of health, education, recreation, banking and shopping. The BRMA criteria takes account of travel to and from those services by both public and private transport in both rural and urban areas.

Rent Officers gather a representative sample of private rental data across the BRMA of all property types and property sizes from a range of sources. They also survey across the full year to capture current market conditions. This includes collecting a representative sample from all the local authority areas within a BRMA, including larger urban centres and more sparsely populated rural areas where relevant.