The Rent Officer and LHA

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is a way of working out Housing Benefit for tenants of a private landlord. It only affects:

new claims made by a private tenant, or
a private tenant who changes address,

on or after 7 April 08.

The maximum amount of rent we can use to work out LHA is set by the Rent Officer at the Valuation Office Agency. The rate is based on the number of bedrooms people need for their household. Rates are set for the following size properties;

One bedroom
Two bedroom
Three bedroom
Four bedroom

A shared room rate is also set.

How is the LHA rate worked out?
The rates are worked out from lettings information collected by the Valuation Office Agency. The rates are based on the number of bedrooms.

The Valuation Office Agency compiles a list for each different bedroomed property in each of the Broad Rental Market Areas (BRMA). The LHA rate is set so that about 3 in 10 of these properties are affordable to people on Housing Benefit.

Every month the Valuation Office Agency sends us a list of the LHA rates for each BRMA. The LHA Rates page contains the rates for the BRMA in which Stockton belongs.

What is a Broad Rental Market area?
It is an area which the Valuation Office Agency have set within which a person could reasonably expect to live having regard to facilities and services for the purposes of health, education, recreation, personal banking and shopping. We are included in the Teesside BRMA.

For more information or to find out the LHA Rates for another BRMA go to the LHA Direct website.

Web Links

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LHA Direct