Kemi Badenoch has led proposals to reduce LHA rates amongst other measures to fund an increase in defence spending.
The plans follow a previous promise from the Conservatives leader to ban foreign nationals from social housing, echoing the sentiments of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.
The cuts are part of the Conservatives’ plan to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP, with cutting LHA to the tenth percentile, reinstating the three-child benefit cap and removing the VAT exception for disability mobility support.
Industry bodies have criticesed the plans, which Kemi Badenoch said were restoring “common sense” to British policy.
Rachel Williamson, director of policy, communications and external affairs at the CIH argued that the short-term savings would be offset by the further financial consequences for low-income renters, leading to further increased homelessness and temporary accommodation costs for councils.
READ MORE: Reform UK Pledges to Prioritise Married Couples Over Single Parents for Social Housing
Shelter also echoed the sentiments of the CIH, citing frozen LHA rates as a key contributor of the housing crisis we see today.
“Making more families homeless does not save the government money.
“With successive governments responsible for the chronic shortage of genuinely affordable social homes, grossly expensive private renting has literally become the only option for millions.
“When you force people to rent privately and then slap a freeze on the only housing support available to them, it is bound to have a devastating impact on lower-income renters.” said Sarah Elliott, chief executive of Shelter.
Temporary accommodation (TA) is already placing massive stress on council finance, with spending on TA increasing by 1077% between between 2011/12 and 2024/25 according to research from the Local Government Association (LGA).
The Conservatives focus on defence spending at the consequence of housing benefit highlights the opposite priorities across the political spectrum as current PM Andy Burnham seeks to fund the “biggest council housing expansion since the post-war era”. Amidst the raging housing crisis and heightened social tension in the UK, leaders across the political spectrum are leaning towards more radical policy propositions in a bid to win support and offer a sense of urgency to supporters of their own respective ideologies.
