Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates per Broad Rental Market Area (BRMA), 2012-2023

LHA rates are set relative to the costs of private rented housing in each BRMA with separate rates by property size (room in a shared property, and then by number of bedrooms for self-contained property up to a maximum of four bedrooms). The rates are calculated based on evidence of market rents for current tenancies collected by the relevant government agency in each country. Evidence collected across the twelve months of the year to September is used to set rates for the following financial year (April to March). Rents which are supported by LHA are removed from the database where possible before calculation of market rent levels. From April 2011, the maximum LHA rate was reduced from the median rent for each BRMA to the 30th centile rent. From 2012 onwards, limits were placed on the annual increases in LHA rates. LHA rates were restored to the 30th centile in April 2020 with the onset of the pandemic, but then saw annual increases again restricted in subsequent years. There is also national maximum cap for LHA rates although this tends to have an impact only in Central and Inner London where rents are highest. Annual increases were limited as follows: * in 2012, there was no increase; * in 2013, increases were limited to the Consumer Price Index; * in 2014 and 2015, the maximum increase was 1%; * from 2016 to 2019, there were no increases for four years; * in 2020, rates were reset to the 30th centile with the onset of the pandemic but still subject to the national maximum level (impacting some areas in Central and Inner London only); and * from 2021 to 2023, there were again no increases for three years. BRMA boundaries were collected from publicly available datasets and linked to postcode centroids from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Updated version May 2024: (https://doi.org/10.20394/yqq2vjva)