St Martin’s Charity Joins Sector Call for Urgent Action on Local Housing Allowance

The Local Housing Allowance (LHA) determines the maximum amount of housing benefit people can claim to help cover rent in the private rented sector. It is designed to make renting more affordable for families and individuals on low incomes across the UK, ensuring that people claiming benefits can access suitable housing.

Years of freezes to the LHA have resulted in the private rented sector being increasingly out of reach for people on housing benefits. Today, just 2.7% of homes in Great Britain would be affordable for someone relying on housing benefits. Despite this, the Government has made the decision to freeze LHA rates until at least 2026, which is putting even more pressure on households and frontline services.

This decision comes at a time when homelessness in the UK is at record levels. In England alone, 83,450 households qualified for homelessness support from their councils between January and March this year, and 4,667 people were counted as sleeping rough in Autumn 2024 – a 20% rise on the year before.

Voices from the frontline

This rising demand is placing significant strain on frontline workers across the homelessness sector. Each year, our Frontline Worker Survey asks frontline staff around the UK about what they are seeing on the ground in the housing and homelessness sector. This year, the LHA has emerged as a major concern. Among the 1,320 respondents to this year’s survey, the vast majority (84%) said that it is difficult or very difficult to find accommodation within the LHA rate for the people they support. It is clear that change is needed.

Joint action: a call for change

St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity CEO, Duncan Shrubsole, has joined other homelessness charities, landlord and tenant organisations, debt advice charities and others, in signing a joint letter to government. The letter calls for LHA rates to be unfrozen, restoring them to cover at least the cheapest 30% of properties in a local area, as it was originally set out to do. By unfreezing the LHA rates, 75,000 children and 125,000 adults would be lifted out of poverty across the UK.

Unfreezing LHA rates is urgently needed to help struggling families avoid poverty, prevent homelessness, and ease the financial pressure on local councils.

The joint letter sets out two main demands of the UK Government:

You can read the full letter here.