To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their response to the National Audit Office's calculation that by 2017 nearly half of local authorities in England will have twice as many housing benefit claimants as two bedroom dwellings available to rent.

As the NAO report makes clear, its calculations are illustrative and depend on a number of assumptions which are inherently uncertain.

The Government will continue to monitor the relationship between rents and local housing allowance rates in different areas. We are committed to limiting increases in these rates in line with inflation until the end of this spending review. If it becomes clear that local housing allowance rates are out of sync with market rents and this is causing a critical shortage in affordable housing, future uprating can be reconsidered.