Generation Rent’s campaign for more public funds for private tenants continues unabated with a call on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to increase benefits.

The latest statement from the organisation claims 500,000 private renters are failing to have their rent covered by benefits.

Generation Rent – led by Baroness Alicia Kennedy – says across England alone 538,000 tenants receive Local Housing Allowance but do not live in the cheapest 30 per cent of homes in their area.

That means that have a shortfall between benefits and rent, which Generation Rent claims adds up to £53m a month in total.

It wants Sunak to increase the LHA to ensure tenants can pay their full rent, make grants available to tenants to pay “unmanageable debt due to the first wave of the pandemic” and to scrap restrictions on eligibility for Universal Credit.

Baroness Kennedy says: “The economic shock of the pandemic has wiped out income and left millions relying on benefits for the first time. But the benefits system is not designed to cope with so many people relying on it for support and is creating the most hardship in the areas hit hardest by the recession.”

And she goes on: “As long as we have an inadequate safety net and the rent is due, the government will be driving more than half a million households into debt and destitution. [Today’s] Spending Review is a precious opportunity to get those people back on their feet.”