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Housing and Regeneration Bill

I have sympathy with the amendment. It cannot be right that tenants could lose their home because the local authority has failed to pay housing benefit on their behalf. That seems utterly unfair. Housing associations have served notice using this ground 8 often because, unless they do so, the local authority has not come up with the housing benefit money. Very long delays in the payment of housing benefit have meant that housing associations have used these grounds, not always with any great intention of following them through. This cannot be the way to proceed. It must be right that local authorities pay much more promptly, so that we do not get into this mess. Having this power in the Bill is an offence against justice.