Landlord insurance holders who house tenants who claim for housing benefits might be interested to learn about a new piece of software being introduced.

The Residential Landlords Association reports that The Local Housing Allowance (LHA) Calculator will mean that landlords, letting agents can take a snapshot of an individuals situation given new national circumstances.

The measure is designed to help landlord contents insurance holders asses how the changes to housing benefit and LHA from the government this April, will affect the LHA entitlement of a particular tenant.

The desktop tool is said to be able to offer rates of LHA to rented property insurance holders, along with expectations regarding how the changes affect the cases of claimant.

Settled Housing Solutions is one of the organisations behind the development of the software.

Alan Elborough is a spokesperson for the body, and he says: “We also believe that the software will dispel the uncertainty about the LHA market.”

He added it will “provide a solid footing for local authorities and the private rented sector to negotiate LHA tenancies with accurate facts in front of them.”

Let property insurance holders will have to deal with changes such as the overall capping of LHA entitlements.

This measure is said to make LHA rates become set at the 30th percentile level of local market rents.

The RLA also says single room rate from individual claimants under 25 to those under 35 will be expanded upon.

The programme comes with other features that will enable landlords insurance holders to sustain rental revenue and bring greater clarity around the impact of the changes before they come in to play.

The product has been developed by Destin Solutions, as well as Settled Housing Solutions Consultancy Service.

Elsewhere in the sector, mortgage lenders should provide more advice for people entering the buy-to-let market for the first time, according to LettingFocus.com.

David Lawrenson, private rented sector expert at the company, said that some lenders have offered “frankly questionable advice” to help new landlords enter the market.

“Often this resulted in the mortgage lenders themselves losing lots of money too, because as the borrowers got into difficulty the lenders had to repossess,” he noted.

Mr Lawrenson added that lenders should provide guides for new landlords, as the property letting market is “far more complicated” than when buy-to-let mortgages were first written.

Figures from Paragon show that 46 per cent of brokers expect to increase their buy-to-let mortgage business in 2011. Over half also saw an increase in buy-to-let mortgage availability in the final three months of 2010.