Budget must ending housing benefit freeze to give families 'breathing space'

Budget must ending housing benefit freeze to give families 'breathing space' EXCLUSIVE: In a letter seen by The Mirror, over a dozen major charities, including Shelter and Crisis, call on Chancellor John Healey to bring the benefit back in line with private rents Chancellor John Healey has been urged to use next week's Budget to end the housing benefit freeze blamed for straining families' budgets. In a letter seen by The Mirror, over a dozen major charities, including Shelter, Crisis, and food bank organisation Trussell, call on Mr Healey to bring the benefit back in line with private rents. As Greater Manchester Mayor last year Andy Burnham had called for an end to the freeze to Local Housing Allowance (LHA) and said it would make a real difference in preventing homelessness. In their letter to the Chancellor, the charities says: "Unfreezing LHA would also give millions of low-income private renters some much needed breathing space." LHA rates set the amount of housing benefit private renters can receive but freezes over the last decade have meant the support has failed to keep up with the cost of soaring local rents. The charities pointed to Resolution Foundation estimates showing a typical two-bedroom home at the lower end of the private rented market now costs £158 a month more than the LHA rate. They said: "This shortfall in housing support is straining household budgets overall, leaving many households struggling to afford other essentials." The charities, which also includes Generation Rent, Homeless Link, and St Mungo's, added: "At present, there are 135,000 households (including 177,000 children) experiencing homelessness living in temporary accommodation in England, many for months and years, because there are not enough social homes available and private rents are increasingly unaffordable. "This system is not working for people trapped in often poor-quality accommodation and homelessness for long periods." They conclude: "This Budget therefore presents a major opportunity to strengthen the UK Government’s wider efforts to prevent and end homelessness. We urge you to unfreeze Local Housing Allowance and uprate rates so that they once again cover at least the cheapest 30% of homes in a local area." The call comes ahead of a pre-Budget summit on homelessness in Downing Street with some of the charities involved in the letter seen by The Mirror set to attend. Crisis chief executive, Matt Downie, who is expected to join the meeting this week, told The Mirror: "With the Prime Minister clearly prioritising ending homelessness, including a 'first instruction' to eradicate rough sleeping, the Westminster government must seize the opportunity of the Autumn Budget to ensure that everyone can access the foundation of a safe and stable home." He added: "This starts with bringing housing benefit back in line with the cheapest third of private rents.Currently, fewer than 2% of homes available to rent privately are affordable for someone in receipt of housing benefit. "The gap between the support people receive and the actual cost of private rents is trapping people in a cycle of debt, poverty and homelessness. More families than ever are living in temporary accommodation - it's an injustice that must be stopped." A Government spokesperson said: “We're determined to turn the tide on poverty, and our recent statistics show that effort is making a difference - household incomes have risen 5% in real terms, food bank usage has fallen, and food insecurity is down.“We have also launched a £1 billion Crisis and Resilience Fund, invested more than £1 billion in homelessness services, and committed a record £39 billion to affordable and social housing.“Local Housing Allowance rates were increased to the 30th percentile of local market rents in April 2024, at a cost of approximately £7bn over five years across Great Britain.”