Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential implications of the Middlesbrough judgment of 2022 for identifying contrived tenancy arrangements in supported exempt accommodation; and whether it plans to update guidance to local authorities.

On 20 April 2026, the Upper Tribunal upheld the decision of the First-tier Tribunal that the rental liability of the tenants of a large housing provider had been created to take advantage of the Housing Benefit system. The Housing Benefit claims for those tenants had originally been refused by Middlesbrough and Sunderland local authorities in 2022.

Although the Upper Tribunal decision does not change the law, we have shared it with all local authorities through the LA Welfare Direct publication to help them identify contrivance when examining similar funding arrangements.

However, it is important to note that the lease-based funding model can be a legitimate and positive method of providing supported housing.

We are currently updating the published Housing Benefit guidance for supported housing claims which contains a section on lease-based supported housing schemes where we will include reference to this contrivance decision.