§ Mr. SoleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which local authorities he has invited to be pathfinders for the standard local housing allowance; and what factors he took into account in making the selection. [77201]
§ Andrew SmithIn order to ensure a robust evaluation of the standard local housing allowance scheme, we have drawn up a list of key factors against which pathfinders should be chosen. This includes a broad range of housing and labour market conditions in England, Wales and Scotland.
The pathfinder areas will represent variety in market and economic activity and will represent a range of high, medium and low house prices and rental values. They include a mixture of rural, urban, suburban and city areas. They will also provide a sufficient sample size, as those taking part must have a caseload of at least 2,500 claimants in the de-regulated Private Rented Sector, of whom at least 1,600 must have claimed under the rent rules introduced in 1996 and 1997.
Further conditions affecting the choice of pathfinder areas include the current state of Housing Benefit administration, the capacity of IT systems, and the need to avoid those local authorities already piloting other Government initiatives.
Based on these criteria, we have invited the following local authorities to take part: Brighton and Hove, Conwy, Coventry, Edinburgh, Leeds, London Borough of Lewisham, Middlesborough, North East Lincolnshire, Teignbridge and Tendring.