19th
Dec 2023
The rental activists Generation Rent is claiming that its own calculations predicts rent levels in 2025/26 and claims rents will rise by 14 per cent higher than the new local housing allowance increase by the end of 2025.
The charity has just released a statement saying: “Record rent inflation in England will rapidly outstrip the increase in social security for renters announced in the Autumn Statement, leaving affordability for low-income households almost as bad as it is today after just 18 months.”
Generation Rent predicts a rent inflation of 8.5 per cent by the end of 2025 which means rents will be 14.2 per cent higher than the new rates of Housing Benefits and Universal Credit from April 2024.
The charity calls the government to ensure LHA is linked to rising rents for the foreseeable future. The Chancellor’s unfreezing of the housing allowance will be increased to the 30th percentile of local rents for the first time since 2019.
The increase will be linked to the average rents in September 2023 which will be paid from April next year and is a 13.3 increase to current payments.
Generation Rent states its forecast on rent inflation is based on its newly developed model basing its findings from the Ofiice of National Statistics’ latest rental index which is measured using housing stock, wages and population figures.
By 2025’s Q4 England’s rents will have risen by 8.5 per cent from the current rents and 14.2 per cent higher than April’s 2024 new housing allowances rates.
It says: “For those reliant on benefits, that will return housing affordability most of the way back to its current unsustainable levels just 18 months after the LHA increase takes effect.”
Dan Wilson Craw, deputy chief executive of Generation Rent, says: “Last month’s announcement of an increase in LHA is sorely needed but will be overtaken quickly by actual rents, and tenants facing painful decisions today will be in the same position in two years’ time. It is past time for the government to re-link LHA with local rents permanently so support automatically adjusts to housing costs every year.”
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