Housing Benefit: Landlords
(asked on 16th June 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the total amount of housing benefit paid to private landlords in the last ten years.
In 2023/24, total housing support provided to private rented sector (PRS) tenants amounted to £12.3 billion (in 2024/25 prices). Of this, £3.9 billion was delivered through Housing Benefit (HB), while £8.4 billion was provided via the Universal Credit Housing Element (UCHE). This means that HB accounted for 32% of total PRS housing support, with UCHE making up the remaining 68%.
The Department does not hold information on housing benefit payments made to private landlords in other OECD countries. Housing support systems vary significantly between countries, and as such, comparisons of housing benefit payments across international contexts should be treated with caution.
The information requested on Housing Benefit paid to private landlords by region and local authority is publicly available. It can be accessed via Benefit expenditure and caseload tables 2024 - GOV.UK (Benefit Expenditure by Local Authority 2023/24)
Housing Benefits Expenditure, £m real terms, 2025/26 prices, from 2014/15 to 2023/24
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£ million real terms, 2025/26 prices | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | Total |
Housing Benefit (Private Rented Sector) | £12,584 | £12,063 | £11,135 | £10,193 | £8,898 | £7,096 | £5,980 | £5,376 | £4,491 | £3,872 | £94,674 |
Total Housing Benefit | £33,636 | £33,296 | £31,482 | £29,488 | £26,844 | £23,249 | £20,811 | £19,474 | £17,574 | £16,805 | £266,500 |
Housing Benefit PRS Proportion of | 37% | 36% | 35% | 35% | 33% | 31% | 29% | 28% | 26% | 23% | 33% |