Its always good to keep abreast of changes to policy that affect local housing writes property blogger Lea Beven.

I received an email from the landlords association this morning, offering National Landlord Association (NLA) members a chance to hear and discuss the governments planned reforms to Local Housing Allowance (LHA) next week.

Housing Benefits Manager for Shrewsbury and North Shropshire, Mark Simpson, will be attending the next NLA meeting with a presentation on the forthcoming changes to Local Housing Allowance and the impact it will certainly have on landlords who have tenants claiming LHA benefits.

The meeting is to be held at the Shirehall in shrewsbury between 6pm and 8pm on Monday the 28th Feb. You can visit their website here.

There will be changes to how benefits are calculated and paid and some people that may have been entitled to benefits may also find a change in the types of property that they can live in.

The LHA rates will now not be able to exceed £250 for a one bedroom property, £290 for a two bedroom property and £340 for a three bedroom.

These details were announced inthe emergency budget in June last year but the date for the change is fast approaching in April. There is a much more detailed breakdown on the government website here.

A little tip for landlords that are not currently letting to people on LHA – there does seem to be many more enquiries locally  from people that are on benefits, compared to those that are not at the moment.

Lots of people that are on benefits are doing so because the companies they have been working for have hit hard times and are handing out a lot of redundancies.

It is a tough time for everyone so to rent your property out faster, it could be worth considering a change.