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Starmer says LHA freeze ‘right decision’ but could be reviewed at next Budget
Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has defended his government’s freeze of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) but said there will be a chance to “look again” at the issue in the next Budget.
The prime minister has defended the LHA freeze but said he will ‘look again’ at the issue in the next Budget #UKhousingSir Keir made the comments yesterday during a Liaison Committee session on tackling poverty, where he was pressed on why the government had not uprated LHA.
Florence Eshalomi asked Sir Keir if he thought this was the “right decision” from a government that is “ambitious on tackling child poverty”.
In response, the Labour leader said: “I defend the decisions we have made. Obviously, as we head into the autumn, we will get to another Budget and there will be a chance to look again across the board.”
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The LHA, which sets the amount of housing benefit a resident can claim, has been periodically frozen over the past decade and has not automatically linked to rent rises since 2013.
The most recent four-year freeze between 2020 and 2024 left many claimants unable to cover rising rent costs.
In 2023, the Conservatives decided to reset rates to the 30th percentile, which came into effect in April 2024.
In her first Budget as chancellor, Rachel Reeves then decided LHA would remain at these levels until 2026, despite the sector urging the government to increase rates again.
Sir Keir’s comments follow similar statements made by housing secretary Angela Rayner earlier this month, who told MPs that unfreezing LHA would simply funnel more money to private landlords.
The prime minister was also questioned by the Liaison Committee about the introduction of Awaab’s Law later this year, and if he was confident it would be enforceable.
Sir Keir said that he was, but that he did not think that “the law will do all the work that is needed”.
He added: “That is why we have strengthened standards in housing across the board, including checking that landlords are doing things like electricity safety checks as well.”
Questions were also asked over what was being done to tackle temporary accommodation, in particular the 6,000 households with children who were being housed in bed and breakfasts.
He also pointed to the £1bn invested in homelessness, and said he wanted the money to have “immediate effect” and be used for housing that can be “built, arranged or taken by councils and repurposed”.
Asked by committee chair Dame Meg Hillier what type of accommodation he was planning to “take over”, Sir Keir said there was “lots of housing in many local authorities that can be used”.
Dame Hillier then asked the prime minister to write to the committee with a list of examples, pointing out that there was not a lot of spare housing available. “If there were, councils would have been able to deal with it by now,” she added.
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