Let's begin with a fact, something that we all know. We're in the midst of both a housing crisis and one of the worst cost-of-living crises in living memory. These crises that we face are interlinked. The housing crisis—or rather, many of the most pervasive problems rooted in housing—is driving the cost-of-living crisis, and, in turn, the cost-of-living crisis is exacerbating the housing crisis. 

The local housing allowance is used to determine the maximum amount of support that a person receiving housing benefit or the housing element of universal credit is entitled to receive towards their rental costs in the private rental sector. It should provide security that the rent can be paid. As pointed out by the Bevan Foundation, one factor that has played a significant role in the emergence of today's housing crisis, and, in turn, the cost-of-living crisis that we now face, is reforms made to the local housing allowance, the LHA. It's designed to allow a tenant to rent a property in the cheapest 30 per cent of a market area. But the reforms made to the LHA mean that the amount of money that a low-income household receives through housing benefit or the housing element of universal credit is often less than their rent, meaning that they have to somehow make up the difference.

Single people under 35 with no dependants are particularly affected by these challenges, due to the fact that the LHA rate is set at the shared accommodation rate, meaning that financial support available to them via the social security system is limited. The result is that 68 per cent of households threatened with homelessness in 2019 were single-person households. This ultimately highlights the vulnerability of younger people to homelessness, partly as a result of the issues surrounding the LHA. Evidence demonstrates that a gap has developed between LHA and rents. Even the Department for Work and Pensions' own figures indicate that the LHA rate is lower than the rents of 67 per cent of renters that are in receipt of universal credit in Wales and are entitled to the housing element.