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Housing Benefit

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeen South (Dame Anne Begg), who chairs the Select Committee on Work and Pensions, and other hon. Members who have contributed to the debate this afternoon. I must say to the Minister that the Government response to the Select Committee report adds insult to injury. The insult was the Government's failure to give the House their response to the report earlier than this morning. Committee members were in a privileged position: we got our less-than-glossy copies yesterday morning, I believe at about 9.25. What was injurious was that the Government seemed not to have read the report. I freely expect the Government not to listen to anything that the Opposition have to say about proposals, but I am stunned that they ignore what a Select Committee puts before them, given that the Committee's findings are based not on our own experience as constituency MPs, but on a great deal of informed experience and evidence given to us by organisations whose only reason for being is attempting to prevent people becoming homeless or dependent on housing benefit. I have with me about a third of the briefings that I—in common with every other Member of the House, presumably—have received from such organisations. Almost without exception, the recurring theme coming through from such reports is the failure of the Government to listen to what they are being told or to take on board the dangers inherent in their housing benefit policy for the most vulnerable in our society. We can all quote chapter and verse from our own constituencies about what the danger and damage will be. The hon. Member for Cardiff Central (Jenny Willott) spoke of the Government's policies being London-centric. Would that they were, because it seems to me that the Government totally ignore any of the individual situations that can be found up and down the country, that people are in and will remain in, even though they are in work. Many of the most low-paid in this country are utterly dependent on housing benefit, and they are certainly not pulling in rents that would keep in fine fettle a house worth more than £1 million. The contribution of London Councils stated:"““Housing costs are over 50% higher than the national average…child care costs are around 25% higher than the national average…Transport in London costs on average £10 per week more…than…in other metropolitan areas.””" We are told that the whole thrust behind the Government's policy is not simply to cut money out of housing benefit or to fill up that big black hole of national debt, but to encourage people to get back into work. However, according to London Councils:"““Added to this, Londoners face extra difficulties in moving into employment, with greater competition for entry level jobs. Many of these entry level jobs do not include a London weighting to reflect the higher in-work costs in the capital…The impact on jobseekers in London has been highlighted in research carried out by Reed in Partnership””—" presumably more evidence the Government know nothing about—"““where the move into work costs on average £639.40 over the first month (including childcare), over £150.00 more than for the rest of the UK.””" Other briefings also pointed out a genuine and well-based fear that the Government's proposals will inevitably lead to greater levels of homelessness, which would mean a greater need for local authorities to house, unless the Government propose removing the statutory obligation on them to put a roof over a child's head. Anything is possible with this Government—they might be intending that, but they have not said it yet. However, if the statutory requirement remains, local authorities will have to house children. Without any question, every single piece of evidence presented to us shows that the people who will be most affected by the Government's proposals are the most vulnerable. Such people tend to be single parents with children, or families on very low pay with children. We are looking at a situation in which we might go back to the dreadful days, which I remember well, when families were existing—certainly not living—in ghastly bed-and-breakfast hostels. Crisis, in its briefing to the Select Committee, said that at the moment the cost of a room in a bed-and-breakfast hostel could be £60 a day. How will the Government save money if that is indeed the future for many families, not only in London but throughout the country, if the proposals go through without any consideration? As my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeen South commented on the Government response to the arguments put forward, not exclusively by the Select Committee, we are not inventing these things, which come not only from direct constituency experience, but from organisations that are expert in the field. They say, for example, that if people with a disabled child need an extra room, or space for a wheelchair or a dialysis machine, the Government's response is, ““Oh well, we can't be expected to meet the requirements of every single individual in this country.”” Why? I thought that one of the first responsibilities of government is to protect the citizens of this country. Surely protecting children, the disabled and the elderly is a vital part of any Government's job. In their response to the Select Committee's report, the Government have failed markedly. There is lack of attention to detail. As most hon. Members who have spoken have said, the Government apparently believe that the additional £190 million that they have managed to find will cover all the additional costs on local authorities, for people who cannot meet their rents, and that that will be the panacea and remove everyone's problems. We all know that that is ridiculous, because it will not. There will be a nine-month transition. Really! Nine months' transition will do nothing except exacerbate the justifiable anxieties of people who know that they are being threatened and may have to move home. When the noble Lord Freud gave evidence to the Select Committee, he was very sanguine about people who may have to move from central London boroughs to outer London boroughs. He could not give any fine detail of what properties could be affordable and available in outer London boroughs. He rested his contribution on the statement that there is a 40% churn annually of people moving house. He could not tell us what sort of families that 40% churn represented, and I think it highly unlikely that it included people with disabilities. I am pretty sure that it did not include families with children, because the monstrous aspect of the Government's proposals is not only that people will lose their homes—they will—but that children will lose their place in school. They will then have to try to find another place in another school. The evidence from Lord Freud's officials on school place vacancies bore no relationship to any figures that I have heard. There are two London boroughs in my constituency, and a desperate shortage of school places not only in junior schools, but in secondary schools. Yet according to the Government, the rest of London is awash with empty school places. I would be interested to know where they are, as would many of my constituents. Another issue that Lord Freud completely discounted in his evidence about people having to be moved from central London boroughs to outer London boroughs was of people having to look for work. Again, he was remarkably sanguine about the cost of travelling. I had three constituency cases only this morning. In one of those, parents with three children aged nine to three are forced to live with their in-laws: six adults and three children are living in a four-bedroom house. The house is owned by the in-laws, but it is extremely difficult for the local authority to find anywhere for that unit with three children to live other than in the private sector. Despite the Government's pronouncement that landlords will be only too happy to lower their rents when housing benefit goes down, there is a marked reluctance on the part of private landlords to accept tenants who receive housing benefit. In my constituency, almost without exception, there is a gap between what landlords charge and what housing benefit pays. That gap will only increase because of the Government's proposals. Another issue that I find bemusing is the Government's argument that the proposal is not just about saving money, but is a real plus and an incentive for people to find work. The majority of people I know who are on housing benefit in my constituency, setting aside the fact that they may be disabled, work. They are in low- paid work, but they are expected to move somewhere else to find jobs, so central London will be bereft of all those jobs on which higher earners are dependent to be able to do their jobs. Quite how that will be a big plus in revitalising our economy is beyond my comprehension. I have always had a rule, Mr Sheridan, that if one cannot say what one needs to say in 10 minutes or less, one should not rise to one's feet. As I am in grave danger of breaking my own rule, I had better draw my comments to a conclusion. When the evidence in a Select Committee report is so irrefutable and it is of such importance to so many individuals and families that the Government get it right, it is absolutely scandalous that the Government response should be so flabby and patronising. The Government patted the Select Committee on the head, but they examined none of the real issues. Given the huge wider changes that they are introducing throughout the welfare benefits system, it is to be hoped that they will begin to do a little more research and take seriously the evidence that is out there.