Joseph Rowntree Foundation calls for a permanent end to the LHS freeze

Around half of all private renters in receipt of housing benefits are in poverty, but for much of the last decade, the benefit system has failed to protect them from the rising cost of rent.

New research conducted by Manchester Metropolitan University and commissioned by the JRF shows that the last 14 years of changes to the LHA (2011 to 2025) have made private renters £684 per year on average worse off.

LHA (the rate used to determine how much housing benefit private renters can receive in their local area) has seen a raft of changes since 2011, including being frozen in cash terms for 7 out of the last 14 years.

The JRF estimate that, if LHA rates remain frozen over this parliament, on average, private renters on housing benefits will be around £700 worse off per year. Fifty thousand renters will be pulled into poverty, 60,000 will be pushed into deep poverty and 80,000 (including 30,000 children) will be pushed into very deep poverty.