Social Rented Housing - Parliamentary Written Answer

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for CLG what representations he has received from social housing providers on the effect on their budgets of planned welfare reform changes and the risk of increased movements of tenants, non-payment of rent and number of voids.

Mr Prisk: Ministers and officials from the CLG are in regular contact with social housing providers across a range of issues.  We intend to use the evidence gathered from the demonstration projects to inform the design of universal credit, including the safeguards needed to protect the financial position of social landlords and prevent tenants from falling into significant debt.  In addition, the removal of the spare room subsidy will be monitored and evaluated over a two year period from April this year, with initial findings available in 2014 and a final report in late 2015. Among other questions, the evaluation will consider the impact of the measure on landlords' finances, by means of small scale primary research with a range of social landlords.