Tories promise tenants choice over rent payments

Tenants who receive local housing allowance (LHA) will be able to choose to have their rent money paid directly to their landlord if the Conservatives win next year’s general election. Grant Shapps, shadow housing minister, will announce today at the Crisis national conference in Birmingham that a Conservative government will revert to the way housing benefits were handled before last year’s government reforms, which are due to be reviewed before April 2010. Shapps is expected to say that the current system is deterring landlords from renting property to tenants receiving LHA: ‘Fearful that rent money may never be paid, some landlords routinely include the words ‘No HB’ in their ads, further restricting the supply of housing for affordable rent.’