GovWire

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) use Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates to calculate Housing Benefit for tenants renting from private landlords. LHA rates relate to an area in which a claim is made - these areas are called Broad Rental Market Areas (BRMA). A BRMA is where a person could reasonably be expected to live taking into account access to certain facilities and services.

How Local Housing Allowance rates are calculated

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) Rent Officers collect rental information from letting agents, landlords, tenants and other sources. LHA rates are based on private market rents being paid in the BRMA which can differ from advertised rents.

These data do not include all rents that might exist in each BRMA. In accordance with DWP legislation, Rent Officers are tasked with collecting a sufficient sample from the 12 month period ending 30 September prior to DWP publishing LHA rates on 1 April. These published data are the rents collected and comprises both new and renewal rents in payment, as negotiated between landlord and tenant. These rents do not include any value attributed to services which are ineligible for housing benefit (effectively net rents). Housing benefit supported rents are also removed where possible.

The LHA comprises a set of rates for a number of categories - Categories A to E which are:

a) Shared Accommodation:

Exclusive use of one bedroom and sharing the use of one or more of a:

kitchen

bathroom

toilet

room suitable for living in

b) 1 bedroom dwellings: those with one bedroom and exclusive use of a kitchen, a bathroom, a toilet and a room suitable for living in

c) 2 bedroom dwellings

d) 3 bedroom dwellings

e) 4 bedroom dwellings

The Rent Officer maintains lists of rental information for each category of LHA rates.

In accordance with DWP legislation, mathematical calculations are applied to the list of rents to determine the LHA rate which is the 30 percentile on a list of rents in the Broad Rental Market Area.

LHA rate from 1 April 2021

From 1 April 2021 the LHA has been maintained at the same rates as those applicable from 1 April 2020, and based on the list of rents collected between 1 October 2018 and 30 September 2019.

You can find the LHA rates on LHA-Direct by searching by postcode or local authority area. BRMA maps and graphs are included in the search results.

Rent Officers are still required to collect data for the lists of rents for subsequent years even though the LHA has not been based on these subsequent lists. These are the shadow list of rents, downloadable in the documents link above.

The periods from 1 October 2019 30 September 2020 and 1 October 2020 30 September 2021 coincided with extended periods of national lockdown due to the COVID 19 pandemic restricting activities in the private rented sector. Rent Officers and their data sources were restricted in their ability to gather data.

The download link is for the complete shadow list of rents for England and is provided for users to self-filter rents for defined BRMAs and LHA categories as required.