IT’S harder for housing benefit claimants to rent a home in Wales than in London, housing campaigners revealed today.

Just 1.2 per cent of private rented properties listed in Wales are affordable for people on housing benefit, compared with 1.6 per cent of those listed in London, a report from homeless charity Crisis shows.

Crisis Wales’ Debbie Thomas said: “It’s truly shocking to see that only 1.2 per cent of private rental homes in Wales are accessible to people on low incomes. 

“Everyone needs a safe place to call home, but housing benefit is failing to meet the true cost of rent and is leaving people trapped in temporary accommodation.”

The Westminster government has frozen housing benefit from April 1.

The charity urged Welsh ministers to press ahead with building more affordable social housing and to change the law in Wales to prevent people from becoming homeless.

The Welsh government was asked to comment.