Campaigning with families on local housing allowance

For many, local housing allowance (LHA) is a vital lifeline standing between them and homelessness.

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) determines how much housing benefit private renters can receive each month to help them pay rent.

With the urgent shortage of social homes across the country, there are extremely long waiting lists for people who are entitled to social housing. This means that many households have no choice but to rent privately.

A mother and daughter walking through the gardens of a block of flats, with a redbrick wall in the foreground.

The LHA freeze

Since 2020 the LHA rate has been frozen by the government despite rental prices and the cost of living skyrocketing.

The average UK rent has increased by 23% since January 2020
A third (34%) of private renters spend at least half their monthly household income on rent, according to Shelter research conducted in 2024

With support clearly failing to meet people’s needs, more and more households have fallen into homelessness.

For those who are able to keep their home, the freeze to LHA forces many to live in substandard properties. Often these properties are barely affordable but still in terrible states of disrepair and in areas with the least access to job opportunities.

Poor housing can significantly damage people's physical and mental health, with issues such as mould, harassment and the threat of 'no-fault' eviction notices being served at any time.

Shelter's response to the freeze

A national campaign

In response to this, in July 2023 Shelter launched a campaign calling out the government for its failure to unfreeze housing benefit despite record levels of homelessness.

We worked with Vicky, who was previously living in temporary accommodation with her children when she first came to Shelter for support. Vicky wrote an open letter to then Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt, telling him about the experiences of thousands of families like hers who were struggling with their housing.

Shelter campaigners speaking to members of the public in a sunny park with a banner reading 'Ice lollies should be frozen. Housing benefit shouldn't.'

Vicky's open letter gained over 31,000 supporter signatures, all demanding an end to the freeze
Our Campaigns team mobilised 10,000 people to write to their MPs outlining the urgency of the freeze and why it needed to end

Mobilising local support

Shelter's Merseyside team also ran a project highlighting the impact of the LHA freeze in their local area.

They gathered case studies showing how local people had been affected. These stories were then presented to local MPs and civil servants at the Department for Work and Pensions, who were building the case within government for an end to the freeze.

#TryToRent challenge

We also ran the #TryToRent social media challenge, encouraging people to search for 'affordable' LHA homes in their local area and post screenshots of the results online.

The results showed a shocking 0 affordable LHA properties, highlighting how unrealistically low the LHA rates are for anyone looking for a home.

Building coalitions

We knew that presenting as a united front was important in changing ministers' minds, so we partnered with other organisations under the 'Cover the Cost' campaign, including:

Crisis
St Mungo's
Save the Children
Local Government Association

We worked jointly to promote and share information about the freeze and ultimately to bring about its end.

Tireless campaigning pays off

After months of dedicated campaigning, last November it was announced that the freeze will finally be lifted. We are thrilled that the government has finally listened to real people and decided to end the freeze to LHA rates.

With the freeze now at an end, more households will be able to afford to a safe and secure home, rather than being pushed into financial hardship or homelessness.

Two young women in black holding a Shelter placard in the shape of a megaphone with text reading 'Louder together'.

Ending the LHA freeze is just the beginning, however. The government must pass into law the Renters' Reform Bill, which will give private renters the security and rights they deserve, and more importantly build a new generation of social homes.

This content is from our 2023/24 impact report. It covers our work between April 2023 and March 2024, and all information is accurate as of this period.