Councils call for “urgent review” of Local Housing Allowance rates following Kerslake Commission report on homelessness

The Local Government Association (LGA) has called for an “urgent review” of Local Housing Allowance rates after a report by the Kerslake Commission warned that the Government will not meet its target to end rough sleeping by 2024.

The report, ‘Turning the Tide on Rising Homelessness and Rough Sleeping’, cites “chronic and unresolved systemic issues” as the reason for an increase in rough sleeping, and calls for an increased supply of social rented housing and supported housing.

The report notes that at the end of 2022, more than 100,000 households were living in temporary accommodation, up 5% from the same period the year before and the “highest on record”.

The Commission makes three key recommendations for change:

• Prevent people from getting to the brink of homelessness – We need to be preventing people from reaching crisis point and becoming homeless or at risk of homelessness.
• No one should need to arrive onto the streets to get help – Where people are at risk of rough sleeping, there should be a cross sector effort to make timely and effective interventions that prevent an episode of rough sleeping.
• Everyone should have a route out of rough sleeping – For anyone who is rough sleeping, there needs to be a meaningful and tailored offer which will take them away from the streets for good.

Turning to what it describes as the “housing affordability crisis”, the Kerslake Commission notes that research published in March 2022 showed low-income households were facing an average £372 deficit between their Local Housing Allowance (LHA) and the cost of the cheapest monthly rents in their local areas.

The report found that large increases in private rents at a time when LHA rates have remained frozen is “one of the primary drivers behind the current increase in rough sleeping”. It recommended that the Government should “restore LHA rates to the 30th percentile of local rents”.

Responding to the report, Cllr Shaun Davies, Chair of the Local Government Association said: “Councils want to turn the tide of rising homelessness and ensure no one has to sleep rough on our streets, an ambition which Lord Kerslake admirably strived for.

“As this report recommends, we need to prevent people from reaching crisis point in the first place, alongside providing tailored support for those who are already homeless.

“Local Housing Allowance rates should also be urgently reviewed to ensure that at least a third of the market is affordable for people claiming housing related benefits, alongside adequate resources for councils’ homelessness services and a cross-departmental homelessness prevention strategy.

“As per our six point plan, councils also need to be given the powers and resources to build 100,000 social homes a year to address the national shortage of affordable housing.”

A government spokesperson said: “We are set to spend over £30 billion on housing support this year, on top of significant cost of living help worth around £3,300 per household. We’ve also maintained our £1 billion boost to Local Housing Allowance while our Discretionary Housing payments provide a safety net for anyone struggling.

“We remain focused on ending rough sleeping for good and are spending £2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in the areas that need it most.”

Lottie Winson