• 'Under the LHA, tenants have the chance to shop around, finding cheaper property and pocketing the difference ... Housing Benefit Minister Chris Pond said: 'The new system for Housing Benefit is working well. It will increase choice .. for tenants.''
  
  DWP press release: April 2005
  
  
• '...costs have exceeded the planned expenditure for this policy. To bring the cost into line with what is affordable ... the Budget announces that from April 2010 there will no longer be scope for anyone to receive more LHA than they have to pay in rent.'
  
  paragraph 5.33 of the 2009 Budget report

So LHA's have effectively morphed back into HB then, except that the size of the locality for which the maximum rent is to be determined has grown. Thats a smooth piece of sleight of hand by anyone's standards.

Does the magic circle know about this?

Was there ever any doubt this would occur? Same thing happened with the 50% top-up under the previous"Maximum Rent" rules.

And, er, *cough*, wasn't LHA always part of HB in any case?