Survey Shows Rents Won't Fall As Result Of LHA Reductions

The government's insistence that the capital's private sector landlords will lower their rents as a result of cuts in local housing allowance has again been contradicted by the evidence of such landlords themselves. A survey by the private sector housing team at Barking and Dagenham council has found that the local market is very strong and that rents are expected to rise rather than fall. The reason is a high and increasing level of demand from households, many of them composed of young couples, where people are in work and not in need of LHA but aren't earning enough to get mortgages and therefore seeking affordable rents. The borough's housing officers conclude that LHA claimants obliged to move out of far more expensive Central and Inner London areas because of the caps and rate reductions which come into effect from next April will be unable to find alternative private sector accommodation on their patch despite rents in Barking and Dagenham being the lowest in the capital. Read more on the Guardian website.