Housing advice for people being asked to leave accommodation provided by family or friends

Help finding housing in the private sector

The housing solutions team at Ealing Council will be able to advise you how to find out what housing is available locally and further afield and how to apply for welfare benefits to help you with your housing costs.

You might be able to get help with a deposit through:

Lots of people choose to rent privately. Some of the reasons why people choose the private rented sector are:

  • long waiting times for council or housing association properties
  • a wider range of locations available, including outside the borough
  • flexibility to move to a particular location for schools, jobs, transport links or local services
  • a variety of types of homes available.

However, due to the housing crisis in London and government cuts to housing benefit, unfortunately it is often very difficult for households on low or moderate incomes to afford private rented accommodation in Ealing, so if you do have to move out of your current home, you may have to consider accommodation in a location outside of the borough.

Local housing allowance rates

The maximum benefit available for private rented housing for people claiming universal credit or housing benefit is called the local housing allowance (LHA). This varies according to location and according to the size of your household.

For a single person it also depends on your age. Most single people under 35 are entitled to the shared accommodation LHA rate. Most single people over 35 are entitled to the one bed LHA rate.

There are some exceptions for people who have previously lived in homeless hostels and for certain categories of ex-offenders.

LHA rates for different household sizes and different locations are shown on the government’s website.

It is important to bear in mind that there are deductions from these LHA rates for:

  • working households, according to how much they earn
  • households which include additional non-dependent adults
  • households affected by the overall benefit cap.