Early day motion tabled by primary sponsor Steve Witherden (Labour), on Tuesday, 4 November 2025, in the House of Commons. It is signed by 50 members in total.

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Freezing of Local Housing Allowance

That this House notes that when the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) was introduced in 2008, it was intended to cover private rents up to the 50th percentile—that is, the lowest 50 per cent of rents in a local area—as a safety net to prevent poverty and homelessness; further notes that, due to subsequent policy changes and freezes, LHA is no longer fit for purpose and now covers only 1% of private rents in Wales and 2.4% in England; welcomes the proposal from leading homelessness charities to end the routine freezing of LHA and to uprate it annually in line with data on rents collected by the Office for National Statistics; further supports the restoration of LHA policy to the median rent level, so that it once again covers the lowest 50 per cent of private rents in each local area, in line with the Welsh Government’s position; and calls on the Government to bring forward proposals at the Budget to permanently restore LHA rates to at least the 30th percentile of local private rents, with a goal of returning to the 50th percentile, in order to prevent homelessness, tackle inequality and further rebalance the power of private tenants.

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Secondary information

Type

Early day motion

Reference

2202 

Session

2024-26

Other sponsors

Rachael Maskell

Kim Johnson

John McDonnell

Jeremy Corbyn

Brian Leishman

Subjects

Local housing allowance

Link

View this Early day motion on edm.parliament.uk