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Rented Housing

The hon. Lady will know that I joined the Committee right at the end of the production of its report. Is there sufficient evidence to expand the point alluded to by the hon. Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew), namely the disjunction between the local reference rent, as set by the rent officer—and the implications that such a rent has on the level of housing benefit that is payable—and the actual rents that are charged in the private sector. There is a big mismatch there. Does the hon. Lady accept that the significance of the poverty trap that she was talking about earlier is partly to do with the lack of gradation in the way in which housing benefit is made available?