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Housing Benefit

The hon. Lady makes a valid point. In areas of my constituency, a large number of students live in shared accommodation. If they are in a house in multiple occupancy, most students are not going to want to share with somebody who is on housing benefit, partly because it makes it difficult for council tax exemption and things like that. As soon as there are different people with different exemptions and different rules, as the hon. Lady has said, the financial arrangements for a household may become complicated. Finally, the other issue about which I have some concerns is the move to uprating rents in line with the consumer price index, rather than with average rents. The issue is a difficult one to resolve, and I completely understand why the Government have decided to propose the change. Increasing the local housing allowance in line with rents has, in large parts of the country, driven up rents significantly. As the hon. Member for Aberdeen South has mentioned, if we set the LHA at the median rent, and if all the landlords currently charging less than that bring their rent up to the median, then the median rises. Rents inevitably go on an upward bend, which has happened in significant parts of the country. I appreciate that the Government are tackling that issue to ensure that it does not happen and that people have a fair crack of the whip. No only are there are implications for the vast amount of money that the Government are spending through the LHA, but there is a knock-on impact on those who are not receiving the LHA in a local area and are renting privately. It can make it even more difficult for those on low incomes to afford appropriate accommodation. I have some concerns, however, about uprating rents in line with the CPI. The index reflects inflationary increases, but it is not designed to reflect changes in the housing market. I am glad that the Government will be reviewing the decision in a couple of years—2014, I think—after seeing the impact. If the LHA is not keeping track with what is happening in the rental market, we could end up with a big gap separating those on the housing allowance and those paying rent. That might have a serious impact on those people's ability to get into work, as well as all the other positive things the Government are driving forward. A number of hon. Members have mentioned that the whole situation is driven by our not having enough social housing in the UK. It is crucial that we build more social housing, if we are to tackle any of the issues. To get in my party political pop for the afternoon, both the previous Labour and Tory Governments sold off more than they built, which is why we are in such a mess in the first place. After the Thatcher-Major Government, by 1997 there were 1.1 million fewer social homes, which is a huge number. Then, after 13 years of Labour in power in this country, there was still a drop of another 250,000 in social housing. By the time Labour left power last year, there were 1.7 million families on housing waiting lists, which is such a vast number that it will take much greater changes than those to the housing benefit rules if we are to do anything about it. I am glad that the Lib-Dems in government are ensuring that something will happen. The Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Andrew Stunell), announced that more than 150,000 affordable homes will be built over the next four years. That is a start, although clearly not enough when we have such a massive deficit of social housing in this country. At least it is progress in the right direction, rather than going backwards. I hope that, whatever we think about the changes, people will fall in behind the building programme to ensure that it happens, so that we can make some progress and people can afford homes to live in.