Councils to Pay LHA Direct to Landlords

Councils will be able to protect private landlords from the government’s new benefits regime for two years. The Department for Work and Pensions had announced previously that councils would be given ‘discretion’ to make direct payments of local housing allowance to landlords if they set their rents at more affordable levels. Last week it emerged that the protection would last for two years from the beginning of April 2011. Changes that will see LHA capped at £400 a week for new tenants are among a raft reforms introduced by the coalition government that came into effect from 1 April. Read more on Inside Housing.