Has anyone looked in detail at the difference between the broad market areas and the localities used for reference rents in their area?

There has been quite a lot of discussion in the housing trade press about benefit limits being cut and it is clear that the use of very wide areas means that some claimants may lose out considerably, but if this is the only reason for the change then logically some claimants should be considerably better off.

If this is not the case then the changes brought about by reducing the size criteria are presumably having more effect than was predicted?

Does anyone have the national figures for the LHA? I know that at least one authority has obtained them under the FOI act, but the LHA helpdesk could only tell me that they would be available at www.lha-direct.gov.uk by the end of March. If anyone could get them placed on rightsnet this would be really helpful

All LAs have indicative figures for their own LHAs.
They were issued a couple of weeks ago.
I can't speak for other LAs but we have made our figures avalible to anyone who wants to see them with the explanation that they may of course change slightly in April.

In our case, as with many other LAs, our localities were reviewed to match the proposed BRMAs in October and the indicative LHA figures are close to the RO decisions we have been receiving since October.

Overall, about half our claims are getting more that they would pre-october, about 25% the same and 25% less.

We have 4 BRMAs and there are significant differences in the LHA levels between them.

We offer second tier advice in North Yorkshire and are starting to hear more concerns relating to both LHA and the local reference rent.

The local reference rent is now based on the BRMAs and this has had a great impact on private tenants in the more expensive areas. Some claimants, who were already paying towards their rent, are now having to find another £10 a week following their annual review. This is likely to have huge implications as there are no affordable private rents in the areas affected, and not enough social housing to meet demand, so tenants do not have the option of moving. One Housing Association worker suggested that the policy intention must be to move claimants into run-down inner-city areas.

There will be winners of course. And those who are under the LHA assessment will benefit by up to £15 a week. But, the difficulties for claimants in certain areas is very worrying.

Our Housing Benefit managers have been very upfront and expressed concern also. Attempts to challenge the BRMAs at a national level have been unsuccessful. The effect of altering the localities for local reference rent localities does not seem to have been anticipated. And there are no expected increases in the Discretionary Housing Payments budget either.

Any rays of hope welcomed. We are only just looking into this but haven't identified any challenges to the situation so far.

Liz

"Attempts to challenge the BRMAs at a national level have been unsuccessful." Is that the Westminster Council judicial review? Haven't seen the decision.

Newcastle is part of a very large BRMA also covering areas with lower average rents. The local reference rent (LRR) area was aligned in November last year. We are seeing current HB claimants in the private sector losing as much as £20pw on review under the new LRR area. Which doesn't bode well for LHA rates.

It seems to be common that localities are being redefined to be the same as the broad market area. I wonder if there is any scope for judicial review here- If a much smaller area was right for a locality last year then a much larger area can't be right this year.

Is Shelter doing anything about this?

Ah - re the challenge: I was quoting verbatim having done the minutes for a local meeting with HB managers. They stated that they challenged the BRMAs as far as possible - not sure through what procedures (internally though). Apparently, from the same meeting, the Westminster challenge was resolved without further legal action but I haven't noted how. I'm starting to feel I wasn't paying enough attention!

Liz