Carolyn Thomas: ...workforce shortages because of Brexit, all of which will affect Welsh Government's target of building 20,000 zero-carbon homes for rent, and the affordability of building new houses is impacted. The local housing allowance has been frozen by the UK Government and the discretionary housing payment fund for Wales, which provides local authorities with top-ups towards rent payments, has been...
Rachael Maskell: .... Bearing in mind what said about it being a post-industrial city, the costs are driving people out of our area. We do not have the supply of social housing that we need right now. As a result, the local housing allowance is just £650 for a two-bedroom property, yet the cost in the private rented sector is £1,026. The disparity is such because the broad rental market area is just too...
Viscount Younger of Leckie: ...New State Pensions will be uprated by 8.5% in line with earnings, as part of the ‘triple lock”. To further support low-income households with increasing rent costs, the government will raise Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents, benefitting 1.6m low-income households by on average £800 a year in 24/25. Additionally, the Government will increase...
Marie McNair: ...more than 92,000 households in Scotland to sustain their tenancies. More than 50 per cent of Scottish households that are in receipt of universal credit housing element have rents that exceed the local housing allowance that has been set by Westminster, so discretionary housing payments are in many cases necessary to help to cover the rent. The benefit cap has also been mitigated as fully...
Carolyn Thomas: ...been discussed earlier. Homelessness is on the increase: 81 per cent of service providers funded by the housing support grant have seen increased demand in their services over the last year, yet the local housing allowance is stagnating all the time, which should be coming from the UK Government. Seventy-five per cent of providers are running on a deficit, using reserves to top up, which...
Baroness Penn: ...by the House of Commons, will do. Additionally, we have put wider support in place to tackle housing pressures, through building more affordable homes and, for example, increasing the level of the local housing allowance.
Joyce Watson: ...-21 and it's reached 2.6 million packages. The current cost-of-living crisis, delays to welfare payments like universal credit, with a five-week wait for any money whatsoever, and the reduction in local housing allowance benefits were cited as the biggest reasons for using foodbanks during my visit. First Minister, what discussions are you having with the UK Government regarding delays to...
Mel Stride: ...things that we have done to ensure that we look after those lower-income families, including increasing the national living wage by about 10% in both of the last two years; the increase in the local housing allowance to the 30th percentile announced at the last fiscal event, which will be worth about £800 a year for about 1.6 million people; and, of course, the tax cuts that the...
Jo Churchill: ...support through cost of living payments and the household support fund, running to hundreds of millions of pounds. The rise in the national living wage, the reduction in national insurance and the local housing allowance further help 1.6 million low-income households. We have a whole of suite of ways to help the very poorest in our society.
Mel Stride: ...of those in child poverty has decreased by 400,000 since 2010. We do not yet have a decision on the household support fund, to which she refers, but I point her to the very significant uplift in the local housing allowance, which will give 1.6 million people £800 a year more on average, thereby taking many of them out of poverty.
Clive Betts: ...on a cross-Government review. Finally, our report makes it clear that rising homelessness has increased costs for councils. A big cause of the increase has been the Government’s decision to freeze local housing allowance rates in April 2020, so our report welcomes the Government’s recent announcement that they will increase local housing allowance rates from April 2024. However, it...
Bim Afolami: ...deny that the outlook remains challenging. Nor do the Government. That is why we announced further action in the autumn statement in November to support the most vulnerable. In April, we will raise local housing allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents. That will make 1.6 million low-income households better off, with an average gain of £800 in the 2024-25 financial...
Jo Churchill: ...increase of 6.7% in working-age benefits for 2024-25, subject to parliamentary approval—as we know, that order began its journey through the Commons today. On top of that, we are increasing local housing allowance from April, which will benefit a further 1.6 million low-income households by, on average, around £800, and we are increasing the national living wage for people aged 21 and...
Paul Maynard: ...have made a note, and we will hopefully follow up with a clarifying letter. Finally, I turn to the right hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn). Not being the Minister in charge of local housing allowance, I am a little cautious about giving him a more definitive answer at this stage—[Interruption.] Nothing annoys me more than when other Ministers intrude on my brief without...
Alison McGovern: ...of State for Work and Pensions, how many households in the private rented sector are in receipt of the housing element of Universal Credit; of those households, how many have rents which exceed the local housing allowance rate; and what is the median gap between the rent and the local housing allowance broken down by the number of children in the household in (a) England, (b) Scotland and...
Alison McGovern: ...Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the number of households in receipt of the housing element of Universal Credit; how many of those households have rent that exceeds the local housing allowance rate; and whether he has made an estimate of the median gap between household rent and the local housing allowance in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales for the most...
Simon Lightwood: ..., what data his department holds on the number and proportion of individuals in receipt of housing cost support at the shared accommodation rate with rent costs that (a) exceed and (b) are below the local housing allowance in each (i) rental market area and (ii) local authority area; and what estimate he has made of the median average gap between housing cost support and rent costs for...
David Davies: ...the support the UK Government is providing to help people with the cost of living. Although housing is a devolved matter, the UK Government is supporting low-income households, by increasing the Local Housing Allowance (LHA). From April 2024, the UK Government will be investing £1.2 billion increasing LHA rates to cover the lower 30% of local rents. Around 1.6 million private renters in...
David Davies: ...of the support the UK Government is providing to help people with the cost of living. Although housing is a devolved matter, the UK Government is supporting low-income households by increasing the Local Housing Allowance (LHA). From April 2024, the UK Government will be investing £1.2 billion increasing LHA rates to cover the lower 30% of local rents. Around 1.6 million private renters in...
Paul McLennan: .... I hope that she will take that back. I am glad that Meghan Gallacher mentioned the homelessness monitor, because one of the key things that it said was that the biggest increase is due to the local housing allowance being frozen over a number of years. That is in the report; the member should read it. It also mentions benefit rates being the biggest factor. If Meghan Gallacher is serious...