Explanatory note

These Regulations further amend the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987 which provide for a scheme whereby housing benefit is payable to persons who are liable to make certain payments in respect of a dwelling occupied as their home.

Paragraph 11A of Schedule 1A to those Regulations is amended so that a tenancy in respect of a dwelling whose ownership has been transferred on or after 7th October 2002, with the consent of the Secretary of State, Scottish Ministers or the National Assembly for Wales, or to a person approved by the Housing Corporation, must be referred to a rent officer only where the rent payable under the tenancy has been increased since the transfer and the local authority considers the rent to be unreasonably high. Such a tenancy need no longer be referred to the rent officer on the ground that the local authority considers the dwelling to be larger than the claimant reasonably requires.

These Regulations impose no additional costs on business.