Landlords in London borough keep on tenants hit by housing benefit caps

Published by 24publishing for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central Government, Local Government

A Lambeth councillor says the borough has been successful in getting some private landlords to take a hit on rents and keep tenants hit by caps to housing benefit.

Changes to the Local Housing Allowance (LHA), which came in for new tenants last year and for existing tenants from January, has capped housing benefit at £400 for a four-bed home, £340 for a three-bed home, £290 for a two-bed home and £250 for a one bed home.

Lambeth has identified around 1,000 people as being affected by the changes, with some 700 set to be hit by the household benefit cap coming in from next April.

Speaking at a fringe event at the Local Government Association conference this week, Lib Peck, cabinet member for regeneration and strategic housing at Lambeth council, said that in between 15%-20% of cases, landlords had agreed to take a hit on their rents and keep tenants on.

She said: "As a result of the housing benefit changes we have been taking very active steps to contact the 1,000 individuals and we've been engaging with private sector landlords talking about, if it's only a 10% reduction in rent they can afford per week, would they be prepared to keep those tenants on. In about 15-20% of cases, that has worked."

She says the council was looking to establish a Lambeth "mitigation fund" as the borough looked at ways of supporting residents through welfare reform.

She said: "What we know as a council is that of the 700 people who are going to be affected by caps, 80% of them are single parent households. We know that if we really want to look at prevention and mitigation in London the biggest prevention to those people going out and getting a job is childcare - that's where we need to be putting some of our preventative resource."