Inside Housing – News – Scottish federal government appeals to Westminster about housing profit freeze
The Scottish housing minister has urged the United kingdom federal government to “do the proper thing” and reverse its final decision to freeze Neighborhood Housing Allowance (LHA) costs and minimize Universal Credit.
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In a letter to secretary of condition for operate and pensions Thérèse Coffey, Scotland’s housing minister Kevin Stewart mentioned the freeze on housing gain “makes no rational sense” and will “arbitrarily penalise some renters based mostly on geography”.
When the COVID-19 pandemic strike in March, the governing administration increased LHA fees – which decide how much housing reward private renters can claim – to cover the least expensive third of rents in a provided location. Common Credit history was also boosted by £20 for each 7 days.
Even so the government’s most modern Paying out Evaluate indicated that the £20 boost to Common Credit score would be reversed and LHA costs would be frozen from the start out of the up coming monetary calendar year.
Mr Stewart said in his letter that restoring LHA prices to deal with the most economical 3rd of rates, as was the government’s coverage before LHA fees were being originally frozen in 2016, “has a beneficial effect on homelessness and poverty”.
“If we seem back again to the Uk government’s first conclusion to restore LHA premiums, and the condition the country confronted at that stage, undoubtedly all of the causes your federal government gave for bolstering the support available are as pertinent now?” he reported.
Not like housing, social security is not a devolved problem, which means gains in Scotland are largely in line with the rest of the British isles.
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