Will Labour ever turn to PRS landlords to help them out?
10 months ago | 21 comments
Angela Rayner accuses landlords of profiting from local housing allowance
9:38 AM, 10th July 2025, 9 months ago
44
Angela Rayner has rejected calls to unfreeze the local housing allowance (LHA) arguing that increasing LHA rates would simply funnel more money to landlords.
In a Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee (HCLG) session on the spending review, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner rejected calls to unfreeze the Local Housing Allowance, emphasising that the solution was to “not give money to private landlords” and focus instead on building more homes.
Ms Rayner also accused landlords of evicting families without excuse, then hiking rents and putting someone else in their place.
Not give money to private landlords
Florence Eshalomi, chair of the HCLG, questioned Ms Rayner over the government’s stance on the Local Housing Allowance and said the freeze was pushing families into poverty. She asked whether a case was being made to review the allowance.
The Conservative government announced an end to the four-year freeze to LHA rates in 2023; however, the Labour government froze the LHA rates again during the Budget last year.
Ms Rayner swerved Ms Eshalomi’s question and claimed the government is working to alleviate the pressures on homelessness, adding that it is spending £34 billion per year on housing support, including £12 billion in the private rented sector.
However, Ms Rayner blamed landlords for benefiting from Local Housing Allowance payments.
She told the committee: “In the longer term, the only way we are going to fix this crisis is not by giving more money to private landlords for people who should be in social housing; we need to have a social housing revolution.
“That is why I have been so bold as to push for the biggest increase in the Affordable Homes Programme, alongside the rent convergence.”
Landlords evict families with no excuse
Ms Eshalomi then fired back at Ms Rayner and asked: “Whether the local housing allowance freeze is a political choice by the government to push children into poverty.”
Ms Rayner again talked about the government’s funding commitment to housing support, but then repeated that private landlords were to blame.
She said: “We are investing by putting money into local housing allowance, but the truth is that the way to fix the problem is not by having significant rent increases under private landlords who put social tenants in private accommodation.
“The way to fix the problem is to have more social housing for people who desperately need it.”
NRLA warning on LHA
Ms Eshalomi pointed out that even the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) has spoken of the impact of the local housing allowance. The NRLA has extensively campaigned to restore the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents.
Ms Rayner argued the government was building 1.5 million homes to tackle the crisis, but Ms Eshalomi said: “We can’t build homes fast enough. In the interim, they are renting in the private rented sector, but a lot of them are not able to rent locally because of the freeze on the local housing allowance.”
Ms Rayner again did not answer the question and, once again, blamed landlords, saying: “Again, on top of that, we have the Renters’ Rights Bill, with its protections, and the extra money we set aside for homelessness prevention.
“Local councils can look at some of that for ways to prevent homelessness and at section 21 no-fault evictions, along with other challenges that families face that lead them into homelessness in the first place.
“We have seen landlords evict families, with no excuse, and then ramp up the rent and put somebody in. That is because the housing market is in such a dire situation. We have taken measures to try to prevent some of those egregious practices, as the same time as building the homes that we need.”
Despite Ms Rayner’s claim landlords evict for no reason, the English Housing Survey Private Rented Sector report for 2021-2022 reveals that the majority of renters (77%) ended their last tenancy because they wanted to move, not because of eviction.
Watch a clip of Angela Rayner from the committee below
Tags:
Abolition of Section 21 Evictions, Angela Rayner, Housing Secretary, LHA freeze, Local Housing Allowance, Private Landlords, renters rights bill, social housing, Tenant eviction
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Member Since December 2023 - Comments: 1573
8:49 AM, 10th July 2025, About 9 months ago
The LHA in my area for a three bed property was £500 per calendar month in 2020. It rose to £550 in 2024 and is frozen until 2026 (and possibly longer).
Just applying inflation (between 2020 and May 2025) would make LHA £636.49.
By not raising LHA, Rayner is forcing tenants to make top-up payments to cover their rent and to avoid homelessness. Often from benefits I tended to help with other things.
Meanwhile, Serco are paid more than the LHA rates to house migrants.
Shameful. I urge ALL landlords to increase rents EVERY year by at least the rate of inflation.
Member Since December 2015 - Comments: 292
9:43 AM, 10th July 2025, About 9 months ago
Reply to the comment left by Cider Drinker at 10/07/2025 – 08:49
What ever that woman is on I want it!!
Member Since May 2023 - Comments: 4
10:03 AM, 10th July 2025, About 9 months ago
A landlord does not have to evict someone to put someone in at a higher rent, they just need to raise the rent to market value using s13.
So she would prefer that tenants that cannot afford their new rent are evicted under s8 where the council can claim that they have made themselves intentionally homeless due to not paying their rent, so they have no duty of care towards them.
How can someone who does not appear to have even a basic understanding of the issues, be allowed to determine policy.
As landlords the end result will be the same, we evict due to rent arrears under s8 instead of using s21.
For tenants, well they are the ones who will suffer in the long term.
Member Since January 2024 - Comments: 341
10:19 AM, 10th July 2025, About 9 months ago
If she was joking I would roll on the floor laughing. Sadly (for tenants) she isn’t.
Member Since June 2014 - Comments: 1562
10:23 AM, 10th July 2025, About 9 months ago
“Angela Rayner has rejected calls to unfreeze the local housing allowance (LHA) arguing that increasing LHA rates would simply funnel more money to landlords.”
So is it still discriminashun to refuse tenants who’s income can’t keep up with market rates?
Member Since February 2018 - Comments: 627
10:30 AM, 10th July 2025, About 9 months ago
Has Ms Rayner considered the devestating impact of ‘hiding’ illegal (I’ll call them neither asylum seekers nor migrants) border breaker in properties handed to the likes of Serco, allthough the landlord gets paid, I’m pretty sure that SERCO is firmly attached to the government teat.
Member Since December 2021 - Comments: 8
10:31 AM, 10th July 2025, About 9 months ago
This women is off her head
I used to take LHA
But the shortfall compared to market rent is just too large
It won’t work
Let the council take care of this sector
A working tenant is so much better
God help them
Member Since June 2015 - Comments: 330
10:34 AM, 10th July 2025, About 9 months ago
It shows how financially illiterate this government is.
Increasing LHA to the genuine 30th percentile rent would save millions on temporary accommodation costs and would give low income tenants extra spending power in their local economy. That would then create jobs and income tax, VAT, etc.
The LHA rate is only partially relevant to landlords. It tells us how much is unquestionably affordable for everyone, then we just need to work out how much more than that is appropriate for the condition and location of our properties. We don’t have to rent to people who fail affordability referencing for currently vacant stock. Some of us choose to have a percentage of benefits assisted tenants. They can be very good long term tenants. That doesn’t mean we choose to charge LHA level rent. I look at each tenant as an individual and base my rent increases on various factors.
1. Are they completely hassle free
2. How much does transport cost them (most of my lower rent properties are located very close to amenity so tenants can use money they aren’t spending on transport to cover moderate rent increases).
3. Are they working (with a UC top up) or unemployed.
4. Could they realistically work more hours
5. Do they receive PIP or other additional benefits
6. How much has the annual increase on other elements of UC been.
7. How much has minimum wage increased by
8. How much have Social rents increased by.
For me number 8 is probably the most important benchmark. No one should expect a lower percentage rent increase than heavily subsidized Social tenants experience.
Member Since May 2024 - Comments: 11
11:30 AM, 10th July 2025, About 9 months ago
The saddening continuum. We have a government that can find money for those it supports, and money is available to house those who do not yet have a legal reason to be a resident in this country. Billions given to agencies to secure properties at highly inflated fixed-term rents for this purpose.
On the other side of life. A government that does not see fit to support genuine residents in keeping pace with inflation, and in particular, those brought into challenging positions by the failure of successive governments in maintaining adequate housebuilding programmes.
The country currently has a shortage of at least 6 million homes. Even in four years, with 1.25 million homes being completed, and with continued immigration, we will still be over 6 million short.
Member Since May 2018 - Comments: 1997
11:41 AM, 10th July 2025, About 9 months ago
Reply to the comment left by moneymanager at 10/07/2025 – 10:30
This is correct. The government is making it more attractive to rent to Serco than to rent to e.g. benefits tenants, just as the government made it more attractive to rent via AirBnB rather than to long-term tenants, e.g. families. And the government continues to squeeze the supply of housing available from the PRS and pursuing policies that favour incorporated investors.
The government needs to get the CMA to take another look at its Renters Reform Bill. This government doesn’t understand markets and people like Angela Rayner don’t care that it doesn’t.