13. What assessment he has made with Cabinet colleagues of the adequacy of local housing allowance rates.

I have regular conversations with ministerial colleagues across Government, and my Department works very closely with the Department for Work and Pensions on the interactions between social security policy and homelessness.

Years of freezes to local housing allowance by successive Governments mean that it goes nowhere near covering the cost of social housing, let alone renting privately. In my constituency, the average rent for a three-bedroom home can be well over £1,100 a month, but a family of four will receive only £840 a month. Poor and temporary housing is a key driver of child poverty, so it is really important that we resolve that. Will the Minister commit to working with the Department for Work and Pensions to unfreeze local housing allowance so that we can lift children out of deep poverty?

In my previous role and in my current role I have worked very closely across MHCLG and DWP to see the interactions between poverty and homelessness, as I said. We spend £34 billion annually on housing support through social security, including £12 billion on the private rented sector. As part of the child poverty strategy, we have lifted the two-child limit, which will help families—particularly larger families—to stay in homes. We are helping parents with childcare costs, we have brought in the fair repayment rate so that people do not need to get into unnecessary debt, and we have increased the standard allowance of universal credit above inflation for the first time in as long as anyone can remember. Those are big steps to help family income, and we should all be proud of them.

The gap between average rents and wages in Poole is among the widest in the country. Freezing the local housing allowance has clearly made that position worse. Will the Minister outline when the freeze will end and when we will see the allowance increase to reflect the actual housing costs that people face?

We obviously keep the local housing allowance under review along with the DWP. If we want to prevent homelessness, we need to build homes and ensure that people can afford them. That is why the Chancellor’s investment of £39 billion to build the social housing that we need is a crucial part of ensuring that families can get housed properly in this country in the future.