Backlash grows over continued frozen LHA rates
5 months ago
Shelter blames rising rents and housing benefit freeze for driving homelessness
9:25 AM, 22nd December 2025, 4 months ago
18
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Shelter claims “unaffordable private rents and the freeze on housing benefit” are pushing more people into temporary accommodation.
According to the housing charity, 382,618 people are now homeless, including 350,480 people homeless in temporary accommodation, the highest since records began.
The news comes as the government have pledged to prevent homelessness by the end of this Parliament through its new homelessness strategy.
Newham is the local authority with the highest rate of homelessness in the country
The housing charity claims one in every 153 people in England are now experiencing homelessness, with households spending an average of nearly three years in temporary accommodation.
In the North West, the number of people recorded as homeless has grown by 15% in the last year, and in Yorkshire and the Humber and the West Midlands it has risen by 11%.
Newham is the local authority with the highest rate of homelessness in the country, with 1 in 18 people homeless.
Outside of London, Slough is the worst-affected local authority, with 1 in 43 people homeless, followed by Hastings with 1 in 60 homeless and Manchester and Birmingham, where 1 in every 61 people are homeless.
Unaffordable private rents are pushing more people into homelessness
In a press release, Shelter blames rising rents and the freeze on local housing allowance (LHA) as trapping people in temporary accommodation.
The press release says: “The dire shortage of social homes, unaffordable private rents and the freeze on housing benefit are pushing more people into homelessness and trapping them there.”
Sarah Elliott, chief executive officer at Shelter, is urging the government to unfreeze LHA rates
She said: “It’s unthinkable that as winter sets in, more than 382,000 people are without a safe place to call home. Thousands of people are bracing themselves for their next freezing night on the street, while over 84,000 families are facing up to the grim reality of spending Christmas in damaging temporary accommodation.
“Every day at Shelter, we hear from parents who are terrified of waiting out another winter in appalling temporary accommodation. Cut off from family and friends in a bleak emergency B&B that’s miles away, they watch as their children’s breath hangs in the air and mould climbs the walls.
“We urge the government to help the families who are homeless right now by ending the freeze on housing benefit. This would immediately lift thousands of children out of temporary accommodation and into a home. While we campaign for change, our frontline services will continue providing direct support to those facing homelessness this winter and beyond.”
Tags:
homelessness, Housing Benefit Freeze, housing crisis, Rising Rents, Shelter charity, temporary accommodation
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Member Since March 2020 - Comments: 6
9:33 AM, 22nd December 2025, About 4 months ago
Can you please make your email bulletins a bit more positive – they are SOOO depressing even at Christmas!!
Heres a tip – start with the first story always positive!
Then hit us will the miserable news.
Merry Christmas
Member Since March 2020 - Comments: 6
9:33 AM, 22nd December 2025, About 4 months ago
By the way your contact form on your website doesn’t work.
Member Since May 2015 - Comments: 2193 - Articles: 2
9:43 AM, 22nd December 2025, About 4 months ago
Reply to the comment left by David Mackley at 22/12/2025 – 09:33
David, if you can identify ANY positive news, then I am sure 118 would be pleased to publish.
There is one possibly positive item, Experian is rumoured to include rental payments as part of the credit score, but it is going to be voluntary on the part of the tenant. Landlords should only take tenants who have included rental payments on their score.
Member Since May 2015 - Comments: 2193 - Articles: 2
9:48 AM, 22nd December 2025, About 4 months ago
Shelter and their friends at Generation Rent** are collectively responsible for the rent increases.
** Apologies to the tenant support groups who have not been mentioned, I would not like any to think that they had been excluded from blame.
Member Since October 2013 - Comments: 1633 - Articles: 3
10:05 AM, 22nd December 2025, About 4 months ago
Shelter, et al, are reaching the point of ‘you reap what you sow’. Landlords costs; S24, etc… have been rising for years, and these are passed on to tenants. Yet, shelter has continued its anti-landlord rhetoric, and lobbied for the RRA, which is the final nail in the coffin for many landlords. The sector has lost 30% of rental properties since 2019, with many more to come.
Meanwhile, immigration has soared, and they are given priority for social housing. Of course, I’m sure shelter and their metropolitan progressive friends won’t say a word about that.
I suspect rent capping will be next; shelter is running out of things to hit landlords with. But the facts speak for themselves. It doesn’t work.
Therefore, homelessness will continue to increase, as will rents, and the number of landlords will continue to decrease.
Member Since April 2018 - Comments: 370
10:07 AM, 22nd December 2025, About 4 months ago
Reply to the comment left by The_Maluka at 22/12/2025 – 09:43
Rumoured?
Member Since April 2018 - Comments: 370
10:12 AM, 22nd December 2025, About 4 months ago
Reply to the comment left by The_Maluka at 22/12/2025 – 09:48
Shelter should be blaming the government entirely.Action=reaction.Landlords are not a charity like Shelter and what exactly are they doing to house the homeless!
Member Since August 2018 - Comments: 158
10:14 AM, 22nd December 2025, About 4 months ago
Hold on a second! For years, Shelter claimed that S21 drove homelessness. Landlords said it didn’t and now it seems, Shelter believes us! MAKE UP YOUR MINDS YOU LEFT WING DIMWITS!!
Member Since March 2023 - Comments: 1506
10:49 AM, 22nd December 2025, About 4 months ago
Homeless, not really bothered as I wouldn’t touch them with a bargepole as bound to have at least a part of their rent paid by Universala Chaos.
Unfair, yes I admit it, but the situation is not of my making.
How many single mothers are there in this statistic, where are the fathers that should be contributing ?
Member Since May 2023 - Comments: 11
11:35 AM, 22nd December 2025, About 4 months ago
Reply to the comment left by The_Maluka at 22/12/2025 – 09:48
Shelter & the on slaught of negative government policies are completely to blame for homelessness.
Frigging unbelievable that they point the finger elsewhere.
I’m selling my portfolio off due to all the extra red tape & threats of fines from the council.
Try working with landlords instead of persecuting them.