Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that the shared accommodation rate reflects the real cost of renting shared accommodation.

Currently, increases to Local Housing Allowance rates are limited to one per cent. However, in areas where there have been the greatest divergences, we are increasing rates by up to 4 per cent subject to the funding available. In 2014/15, this meant that 56 out of the 192 Shared Accommodation Rates were increased by 4 per cent. In 2015/16, we will be increasing 63 out of the 192 Shared Accommodation Rates by 4 per cent.