Skip to main content
Shelter Logo
England

Research Briefing: A Postcode Lottery?

By: Liam Reynolds
Published: January 2009

Research Briefing: A Postcode Lottery?

Using a sample of more than 1,500 advertisements for private rented homes in four Broad Rental Market Areas (BRMAs) in England, the study indicates that LHA claimants are subject to a ‘postcode lottery’. The use of larger BRMAs to set the level of LHA in different areas has resulted in less equitable outcomes for claimants. The median rent in these larger areas does not offer a fair reflection of the extremes of the range of rents within those areas.

These findings show that the BRMA boundaries used for setting LHA are working contrary both to the aims of housing benefit reform and to wider government initiatives, such as creating mixed communities and maximising employment and training incentives for benefit claimants.