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Housing Benefit (Amendment) Regulations 2009

My Lords, I shall make a very brief contribution to offer my support to the Motion proposed by the noble Baroness, Lady Thomas, and to raise one or two questions for the Minister. I am very conscious of the numbers of ethnic minority communities in east London that are likely to be dramatically affected by this order. I wonder whether the Minister has legal advice about the potential for judicial review on a possible breach of our own equalities legislation. I was impressed by the idea put forward by Shelter and by the noble Baroness that there are alternative ways in which to deal with this. I take on board the Minister’s intention to reduce the barriers to employment by trying to cap in some way the levels of rent, because there is no doubt that parents of large families find it extremely difficult to get back into work and to feel that there is any point in doing so. Nevertheless, it would be reassuring to feel that the Government could find other ways in which to deal with the problem without such a blunt instrument, which I should have thought could be open to challenge.