Senedd Committee supports action on housing allowance

The Bevan Foundation welcomes support from a Senedd Committee to increase Local Housing Allowance

The Bevan Foundation has been urging the UK Government to increase Local Housing Allowance (LHA) for some time. LHA determines how much help a low-income private sector tenant can get with their housing costs.  It is limited to the cheapest 30 per cent of properties and has been frozen for the third year running.

We are pleased that the Senedd Local Government and Housing Committee budget report has formally endorsed our calls to increase LHA.

The Committee report says:

We were reassured to hear that the Welsh Government is imploring the UK Government to put the allowances back to at least the 30th percentile of local market rents that they used to be set at, and we would urge the Welsh Government to do everything it can in this area.  

The Bevan Foundation has demonstrated that freezing LHA makes it extremely difficult for tenants who need help with their housing costs to find a home that they can afford – many parts of Wales have few if any properties that are at or below the LHA rate. 

Tenants are often forced to use cash that should be spent on food and heating on topping up their rent. Wales a has the highest percentage in Britain of private tenants whose rent is not covered by LHA. 

The Committee report goes on to recommend that the Welsh Government should set out what steps it is taking to influence the UK Government to increase the Local Housing Allowance rate to at least the 30th percentile of local market rents.