Families on housing benefit unable to afford 94% of rental homes, research finds

Families on housing benefit are priced out of almost every home on the market, according to new research.

More than 93 per cent of family homes are unaffordable to local housing allowance (LHA) claimants, according to analysis of private rental listings.

Some towns had just one affordable property available, found the National Housing Federation (NHF), which warned the government’s benefits freeze is “pushing low-income families to the brink”.

The NHF analysed 75,000 private rental adverts across every postcode in England and found LHA could cover the cost of only 7.5 per cent of them.

Family homes – with two or more bedrooms – were even less affordable, with only 6.5 per cent within the budget of households in receipt of the benefit. In some areas less than 1 per cent of homes were within the budget of households on LHA.

Kate Henderson, chief executive of the NHF, said: “Low-income families in England are being punished two-fold. No longer able to access social housing because of the dire shortage of it, they now can’t access enough housing benefit to rent privately either.

“The crippling effects of the housing crisis and significant cuts to benefits have forced thousands of parents into impossible situations in order to keep a roof over their children’s heads, many having to choose between crippling debt, overcrowding or homelessness.”

The worst shortages were in Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, Thanet in Essex, and Stevenage in Hertfordshire, which each had only one home within the budget of people on LHA.

Ipswich had three, Milton Keynes had four, and Peterborough had six – all equivalent to less than 1 per cent of the private rental homes on the market in each area.

Polly Neate, chief executive of housing charity Shelter, said families were “living in misery because housing benefit is not doing its job”.

LHA, which varies depending on region and house size, was designed to cover the cheapest 30 per cent of local market rents. But the allowance was frozen for four years in 2016 as part of government austerity policies, while rent has continued to climb.

“A four-year freeze has left it lagging dangerously behind the actual cost of private rents in this country,” Ms Neate told The Independent. “Every day on the ground, Shelter’s staff see the impacts of housing benefit falling short, with families unable to afford basics like food and heating.”

Emma Langdon, a mother of two young boys, spent several months looking for a home in Plymouth that was covered by her housing benefit entitlement after splitting up with her partner.

To avoid being made homeless, they eventually moved eight miles away from the children’s school last year into a house which costs £60 a month more in rent than they receive in LHA.

Ms Langdon, 30, said: “It’s a nightmare. As well as trying to afford the rent, I’m now spending £50 a week on fuel to get the children to school and back.

“It’s practically impossible to find anywhere affordable that accepts people on housing benefit. If we lived nearer the children’s school it would cost an extra £100 each month in rent, but at least I would save money on petrol and they would be near their friends.”

The NHF found 39 out of 475 private rental homes listed in Plymouth on Zoopla in July 2019 were affordable to families on the relevant LHA rate.

Less than 3 per cent of rooms within shared accommodation across England were affordable on the relevant LHA rate, which is usually the only one available to single people aged under 35.

Labour’s shadow housing secretary, John Healey, told The Independent: “This research is a stark reminder of the housing pressures too many people face.

“Since 2010, Conservative ministers have slashed funding for housing benefit and new low-cost homes, and refused to set common-sense rules to protect private renters.”

Both the NHF and Shelter urged the government to end the benefit freeze, increase payments to cover at least the bottom 30 per cent of private rental homes in any local area, and build millions of new homes.

The NHF, which represents housing associations, called for an annual investment of £12.8bn into social housing.

A government spokesperson said: “Providing quality and fair social housing is an absolute priority. The government increased more than 360 local housing allowance rates this year, by targeting extra funding at low-income households.

“We’ve helped councils and housing associations to speed up the delivery of more homes, including social housing, through our £9bn affordable homes programme – delivering over 430,000 affordable new homes since 2010.”