THE SNP have critiqued Andy Burnham's pledge to end homelessness, claiming the move is hypocritical while "the Labour Party has driven more than 33,000 Scottish households into hardship".
This claim comes after research into the decision to freeze a key Westminster-controlled benefit for renters.
While housing policy and some welfare spending is devolved to Holyrood, the UK Government retains control over Universal Credit (UC) and the connected Housing Benefit.
The UK Government opted to freeze the Local Housing Allowance rates – which determine the level of support renters can receive through benefits – at April 2024 levels. This has led to a growing gap between the cost of renting and the amount being paid out in every council area of Scotland.
A new report from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Spice) shows that in January 2026 there were 33,155 families in Scotland receiving the housing element of UC which did not cover the cost of their household rent.
The report, requested by the SNP, found that just 44% of households the allowance applied to had their rent covered in full compared to 57% when the freeze was announced in 2024.
Further analysis by SPICe shows that the housing allowance does not cover the median rent for one, two or three bedroom properties in any of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas.
These findings come as the new Prime Minister prepares to end rough sleeping "at the earliest opportunity", unveiling earlier this week a £340 million package to fund supported housing and homelessness services.
But the SNP are now warning that this pledge could fall flat if Labour does not unfreeze the housing allowance portion of UC, urging Burnham to "do the right thing and scrap it".
Steven Bonnar, SNP MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, said: “The Labour Party has driven more than 33,000 Scottish households into hardship through the Local Housing Allowance freeze – Andy Burnham must do the right thing and scrap it.
“We know in Scotland the freeze will hit 45,000 households including 31,000 children by the end of this financial year – these circumstances are untenable and if Andy Burnham is serious about the new politics he preaches about, then the Labour UK Government can no longer sit on its hands.
“Outside the door of Number 10, Andy Burnham said he would end rough sleeping – if he wants to take tangible action then he must do the right thing and scrap the freeze – that’s how you keep Scottish families in homes and not in hardship.”
With parts of the welfare system being devolved, the Scottish Government has set up various funds to alleviate the pressure placed on renters from the allowance freeze.
These include removing the financial implications of the so-called bedroom tax, which sees UC reduced if there are spare bedrooms in your rented accommodation, through the Discretionary Housing Payment which can offer some support.
Discretionary payments are cash-limited and accessed on a case-by-case basis, with Scottish ministers stressing that sustained UK-level freezes and the below-market LHA rates damage Scotland’s wider ambitions on housing and child poverty.
A spokeswoman for the UK Government’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said: “Renters across Scotland can access funding to help meet shortfalls in their rent through Discretionary Housing Payments – which have been fully devolved to the Scottish Government.
“We’re also putting money back into people’s pockets by boosting the National Living Wage, unlocking work for people across Scotland and tackling poverty by removing the two-child limit.”
Analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows half of people receiving housing support are already living below the poverty line, while permanently linking LHA to the 30th percentile of local rents could lift 75,000 children out of poverty.
Former housing secretary Mairi McAllan wrote to her UK Government counterpart – then Steve Reed – in February to warn that freezing LHA “makes it harder for low-income households to access and sustain tenancies in the private rented sector”.
She also warned that an “unfair burden” was being placed on local authorities as councils receive a housing benefit subsidy equivalent to 90% of the 2011 LHA rate to cover temporary accommodation costs.
Meanwhile, Timothy Douglas, head of policy and campaigns at industry body Propertymark, said: “The longer the UK Government continues to freeze LHA, the greater the gap becomes between support and actual housing costs and the more expensive it will be to realign LHA with the market in the long term.
“Freezing LHA for 2026-27 will only exacerbate the affordability crisis facing many renters, pushing some further into financial hardship and making it harder for them to secure or sustain a stable home.”
He warned the shortfall between housing support and real rents will be “widened” which will increase the risk of homelessness and place a greater strain on public services.
