Housing and the cap
Local Housing Allowance rates for every rental area
Pick your Broad Rental Market Area, tell us who lives with you, and see the most Universal Credit can pay towards your private rent.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
Local Housing Allowance is the ceiling on help with private rent. For 2026/27 the rates of all 192 Broad Rental Market Areas in England (152), Scotland (18) and Wales (22) stay at the level set in April 2024, for a third year running, so a tenant whose rent has risen since then pays the whole increase. The monthly 2-bedroom rate runs from £400.00 in North Powys to £1,793.98 in Central London, with a median of £675.00. The rate that applies to you depends on the bedrooms your household is allowed: one for you or your couple, one for each other adult, children sharing in pairs, up to 4 bedrooms. A single person under 35 with no children is limited to the shared accommodation rate, between £288.96 and £829.83 a month depending on the area, unless an exemption applies. Universal Credit pays the lower of your rent and the rate; Housing Benefit uses the same levels expressed weekly.
Most UC pays towards rent: shared accommodation rate
£830 a month
£370 a month of your rent is not covered
| Shared accommodation rate | £830 |
| 1 bedroom | £1,440 |
| 2 bedrooms | £1,794 |
| 3 bedrooms | £2,160 |
| 4 bedrooms | £3,060 |
Central London: the 2-bedroom rate ranks 192 of 192 areas in Great Britain. Rates frozen at their April 2024 level for 2026/27; a bedroom rule allows a room for each couple or adult, children sharing in pairs.
The ten dearest and ten cheapest areas
London fills the top of the table. Two bedrooms in Central London are allowed £1,793.98 a month, about 4.5 times the £400.00 allowed in North Powys. Outside London, the highest 2-bedroom rates are in the commuter belt and the university cities; the lowest are in former coalfield and rural areas of northern England and Wales.
| Area | Nation | 2 bedrooms a month | Shared room a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central London | England | £1,793.98 | £829.83 |
| Inner North London | England | £1,793.98 | £708.27 |
| Inner East London | England | £1,750.00 | £699.50 |
| Inner South West London | England | £1,700.00 | £685.00 |
| Inner West London | England | £1,625.00 | £760.00 |
| Inner South East London | England | £1,550.00 | £650.00 |
| Outer South West London | England | £1,495.00 | £591.50 |
| Outer East London | England | £1,400.00 | £561.33 |
| Outer North London | England | £1,400.00 | £595.00 |
| North West London | England | £1,350.00 | £621.33 |
| Area | Nation | 2 bedrooms a month | Shared room a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Powys | Wales | £400.00 | £293.30 |
| Durham | England | £400.00 | £393.25 |
| Northumberland | England | £425.00 | £356.33 |
| Blaenau Gwent | Wales | £430.00 | £300.00 |
| South Gwynedd | Wales | £434.52 | £342.41 |
| Brecon and Radnor | Wales | £440.00 | £332.41 |
| West Pennine | England | £450.00 | £310.68 |
| Taff Rhondda | Wales | £450.00 | £300.00 |
| Neath Port Talbot | Wales | £450.00 | £375.00 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | Scotland | £450.00 | £335.00 |
Scotland: all 18 areas
| Area | Shared | 1 bed | 2 beds | 3 beds | 4 beds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aberdeen and Shire | £325 | £475 | £650 | £860 | £1,250 |
| Argyll and Bute | £350 | £450 | £600 | £695 | £1,200 |
| Ayrshires | £375 | £375 | £475 | £565 | £800 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | £335 | £380 | £450 | £500 | £690 |
| Dundee and Angus | £375 | £400 | £615 | £795 | £1,100 |
| East Dunbartonshire | £425 | £550 | £750 | £1,000 | £1,400 |
| Fife | £375 | £450 | £590 | £715 | £1,250 |
| Forth Valley | £415 | £460 | £650 | £800 | £1,300 |
| Greater Glasgow | £450 | £695 | £850 | £970 | £1,800 |
| Highland and Islands | £380 | £475 | £595 | £695 | £850 |
| Lothian | £475 | £750 | £970 | £1,375 | £2,180 |
| North Lanarkshire | £375 | £440 | £550 | £675 | £895 |
| Perth and Kinross | £359 | £425 | £560 | £750 | £1,250 |
| Renfrewshire/ Inverclyde | £360 | £400 | £525 | £600 | £1,100 |
| Scottish Borders | £325 | £375 | £500 | £615 | £985 |
| South Lanarkshire | £375 | £450 | £575 | £716 | £1,107 |
| West Dunbartonshire | £350 | £475 | £595 | £675 | £950 |
| West Lothian | £410 | £500 | £625 | £750 | £1,113 |
Wales: all 22 areas
| Area | Shared | 1 bed | 2 beds | 3 beds | 4 beds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blaenau Gwent | £300 | £326 | £430 | £490 | £650 |
| Brecon and Radnor | £332 | £340 | £440 | £550 | £650 |
| Bridgend | £300 | £400 | £525 | £575 | £775 |
| Caerphilly | £337 | £350 | £495 | £550 | £750 |
| Cardiff | £366 | £650 | £825 | £925 | £1,300 |
| Carmarthenshire | £337 | £400 | £489 | £535 | £650 |
| Ceredigion | £304 | £420 | £500 | £550 | £650 |
| Flintshire | £380 | £450 | £595 | £695 | £925 |
| Merthyr Cynon | £300 | £435 | £500 | £550 | £725 |
| Monmouthshire | £337 | £533 | £700 | £795 | £1,100 |
| Neath Port Talbot | £375 | £412 | £450 | £500 | £575 |
| Newport | £337 | £440 | £600 | £650 | £880 |
| North Clwyd | £342 | £395 | £550 | £650 | £855 |
| North Powys | £293 | £325 | £400 | £550 | £675 |
| North West Wales | £342 | £391 | £550 | £625 | £750 |
| Pembrokeshire | £297 | £360 | £460 | £575 | £700 |
| South Gwynedd | £342 | £350 | £435 | £543 | £675 |
| Swansea | £375 | £525 | £550 | £600 | £820 |
| Taff Rhondda | £300 | £375 | £450 | £495 | £650 |
| Torfaen | £300 | £500 | £565 | £650 | £750 |
| Vale of Glamorgan | £300 | £526 | £666 | £725 | £1,025 |
| Wrexham | £391 | £475 | £525 | £600 | £750 |
The calculator above holds every English area as well; the DWP publishes the 152 English rates in a separate file.
How many bedrooms you are allowed
The size rules for private renters sit in Schedule 4 of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013. You get one bedroom for yourself or your couple, one for each other person aged 16 or over, and one for each pair of children who can share: two under 16 of the same sex, or two under 10 whatever their sex. An extra room is allowed for a non-resident overnight carer, and for a child or adult who cannot share because of a disability. Nobody is allowed more than 4 bedrooms, so a large family in a five-bedroom house is still assessed at the 4-bedroom rate.
A single claimant under 35 who has no children and no other adult living with them gets the shared accommodation rate, meant to pay for a room in a shared house. Paragraph 29 lists the people excepted from it, which is worth checking: a 23-year-old care leaver renting a studio flat in Lothian is assessed at the 1-bedroom rate of £750.00, not the shared rate.
Universal Credit monthly, Housing Benefit weekly
The figures here are the monthly rates the DWP uses for Universal Credit. Housing Benefit, still paid to pensioners and people in supported or temporary housing, uses the weekly rates the Valuation Office Agency publishes for the same areas: the monthly figure × 12 ÷ 52, so £675.00 a month is about £155.77 a week. GOV.UK notes that a Housing Benefit claim running continuously since before 7 April 2008 keeps its old rent rules until the tenant moves or the claim breaks. Social tenants are not capped by area at all; their rent is reduced instead for spare bedrooms. Northern Ireland has 8 areas of its own, set by the Housing Executive and not included here; benefits in Northern Ireland explains how they work. The rates were read in the DWP files on 10 October 2026.