Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of Local Housing Allowance relative to rental costs.

An assessment has been made in respect of Local Housing Allowance rates against rental costs for Housing Benefit and Universal Credit claimants in the private rented sector. See the attached table in the PQ 183052.

We increased LHA rates to the 30th percentile of local rents in April 2020. This significant investment of nearly £1billion has provided 1.5 million claimants with an average £600 more housing support last year than they would otherwise have received.

In 2021/22 claimants will continue to benefit from the increase. We are maintaining this investment by keeping LHA rates at the same levels from April 2021.