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Housing Benefit (West Ham)

My basic tenet is that it is not possible to exist with the universal cap level and pay the rent of a London property, whether it is a two-bedroom flat over a fish and chip shop in Green street, or somewhere a little more palatial, perhaps further out. The taper in the benefit system, which the Minister rightly said I spoke about previously, is a disincentive for people who are trying to work, but we now have a cap and there will no opportunity for them to negotiate their rent downwards. I cannot see how the reform that the Minister talks about will improve matters at all.