Member

How did we get here? Local housing allowance was designed to reflect the bottom 30% of private rents. That link has been systematically dismantled from 2011 through caps, below-inflation uprating and then—the most damaging decision of all—a complete freeze between 2016 and 2020. Meanwhile, rents were rising year after year. That period matters because that was when the system tipped from strain into crisis. When the Government reset LHA in April 2024, it was not a solution; it was damage control. As the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said at the time, it was