LGA housing spokesperson calls for immediate increase in subsidy for temporary accommodation

The Local Government Association’s housing spokesperson has called for an immediate increase in the subsidy for temporary accommodation, so that it is no longer frozen at 90% of 2011 Local Housing Association rates.

Writing for the National Housing Federation, Cllr Adam Hug claimed that over the past five years, frozen LHA rates had left councils to pick up more than £700m in costs that they were unable to claim back from the Government.

Cllr Hug also said councils needed a commitment to uprate LHA rates to the 30th percentile of local rents beyond 2025/26.

“These measures would enable councils to invest the money currently spent on costly temporary accommodation back into replenishing their own housing stock and homelessness prevention services,” he wrote.

The LGA’s housing spokesperson also urged the Government to go further in its reforms to the Right to Buy, by giving councils “permanent flexibility to combine receipts with other government grants, the ability to set the size of discounts locally, and to exempt new build homes”.

Cllr Hug meanwhile suggested a number of medium and long-term measures that the Government could implement to tackle the housing crisis. These include:

• the roll out of five-year local housing deals to all areas that want them could lead to 200,000 additional social homes over 30 years
• strengthening of Housing Revenue Accounts via  a long-term rent settlement and restoration of lost revenue due to rent cap/cuts
• a focus on sustained housebuilding, and
• bringing back a focus on preventative services, which includes homelessness and supported housing.

Cllr Hug pointed out that Government data shows the proportion of housing for affordable or social rent in England has fallen from around 20% in 2000 to 16% in 2023.

Calling on the Government to take bold action to tackle the housing crisis, he said: “Our message to the government is simple: work with us and give us the tools to build the homes our country needs.”

Harry Rodd