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News release

Government still got it wrong on LHA

30 March 2010

The National Landlords Association has responded to today’s publication of the Work and Pensions Select Committee report into Local Housing Allowance (LHA) by calling on Government to rethink its proposals for reform of LHA.

The NLA agrees with the Committee as it came out strongly against the Government’s proposal to make direct benefit payments conditional on energy efficiency which it said had the potential to do ‘more harm than good’. 

Further recommendations in the report call on local authorities to be more pro-active in identifying vulnerable tenants, and to provide more advice services and support. Underlying this was the Committee’s emphasis that ‘the onus should not be on the claimant to inform the local authority that they are vulnerable’.

Research by the NLA shows that LHA has generated rent arrears across the whole private-rented sector of as much as £220m since it was rolled out nationally, the Committee has recommended that the Government goes further and commissions an in-depth study on rent arrears ‘to gain a clearer picture of the scale of the problem’.

David Salusbury, Chairman, NLA, said:

“This report highlights the reality that LHA is not working as well as the Government would like to believe. The NLA’s own survey found on average landlords were owed £4,400*. This is public money that neither the taxpayer nor landlords can afford to lose.

“If the sector is unconvinced by the Government’s proposals for reform and the committee’s report is critical, then we think Government needs to look carefully at these findings, deal with rent arrears and try not to make matters worse.”

-ENDS-

* The survey, based on nearly 1,000 landlords and 13,000 tenants receiving LHA, found landlords are experiencing rent arrears of £4.4m.

Ellie Irwin
Press Officer, NLA
Email:
Tel: 020 7840 8925
Mob: 07833 683 281

Notes to Editors:
Representing landlords from all over the UK, the National Landlords Association (NLA) is the leading organisation for private-residential landlords. It campaigns for the legitimate interests of landlords by seeking to influence decision-makers at all levels of government and by making landlords’ collective voice heard in the media. The NLA helps landlords make a success of their lettings business by providing a wide range of information, advice and services. It seeks to raise standards in the private-rented sector while aiming to ensure that landlords are aware of their statutory rights and responsibilities.