Housing benefit needs to be overhauled to prevent "social unrest" by taxpayers who believe it is unfair, David Cameron said today (18 November). Mr Cameron became entangled in a tetchy exchange with Labour's Margaret Hodge, who said the PM did not understand the "anger" in her Barking constituency and warned about the impact on the "extreme right". Mrs Hodge, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, told Mr Cameron: "You said you support mixed communities but it's undoubtedly the case that the cap and the 30th percentile you're going to be introducing in the housing benefit changes will mean that poorer people cannot afford to live in rented accommodation in Notting Hill, where you live, or Islington, where I live, or in Westminster, where we all work. "And they will be forced out to areas like the one I represent, Barking, where there is already pressure and social unrest caused by the very rapid changes in population and the lack of affordable housing. "I'd simply put to you: is social unrest a price worth paying, and the impact that can have with the extreme right?" Read the PM’s reply on 24dash.
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