Housing Secretary MIchael Gove is reported to be pressing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to increase Local Housing Allowance in next week’s Autumn Statement.

The BBC reported over the weekend that Gove – along with Pensions Secretary Mel Stride – had written to Sunak to boost LHA record numbers of people in temporary housing.

LHA rates, which determine housing benefit levels, have been frozen since 2020.

The number of people in England living in temporary accommodation is at record levels as landlords sell up and high rents affect many households.New government figures show 104,510 households were in temporary accommodation in the three months to June, including 131,370 children.

But the BBC believes the Treasury instead prefers higher universal credit for those in work.

Officials have reportedly drafted proposals to cut the “taper rate” – the proportion of earnings people can keep before their benefit payment is cut. 

The taper rate is currently 55 per cent meaning that for every pound someone earns above their personal work allowance, their universal credit payment is reduced by 55p.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies just five per cent of rental properties advertised on Zoopla are now affordable for those in receipt of housing benefit as a result of the freeze.

And the National Residential Landlords Association is calling on the government to unfreeze housing benefit rates as a matter of urgency, to prevent ever growing numbers of benefit claimants from struggling to access the housing they need.