evidence: Key findings 1. Facing higher housing costs, renters are considerably more likely than owner-occupiers to have low living standards on a variety of measures. Social and private renters have poverty rates of 46% and 34% respectively, compared with 12% for owner-occupiers. And they are also far more likely to be materially deprived or to live in food insecurity. [...] 4.3 How have changes to local housing allowance rates affected affordability of private rented accommodation for those on benefits? [...] This is especially important as privately rented homes are, on many dimensions, worse in quality than social rented or owner-occupied properties – for example, they are more likely to have dangerous hazards and be hard to heat. Moreover, the shift towards low-income households privately renting has raised the importance of housing benefit policy. The current policy of indefinitely freezing local housing allowance rates means that the support that poorer private renters can get to help with their rent falls over time – and all the more so when rents are rising quickly. Only about 5% of available properties are now affordable (able to be completely paid for by housing benefit) for those on housing benefit – down from more than 20% just three years ago. Those properties that are affordable are increasingly tilted towards energy-inefficient properties, raising their true cost (i.e. including energy bills).