Letting Agents 'Will Have To Publish Their Fees in Full'

The government has said letting agents in England face a new obligation to display full details of their fees both on their websites and in their offices. At Deputy PM Nick Clegg's Commons question session, the Lib Dem leader faced calls from Labour's Harriet Harman to back her party's bid to ban agents from charging fees to tenants. He said there were "virtues" in the opposition's push for longer tenancies. But he warned that the fee ban could increase rents in the long run. Read more on the BBC website.

Clegg's Promise of Bedroom Tax Review Is a 'Sham,' Says Harman

Nick Clegg’s promise of a review into the controversial so-called 'bedroom tax' was labelled a “sham” by Harriet Harman after it emerged it will not be complete until late 2015 and will not hear from the public.  Last month the Deputy Prime Minister told Ms Harman in the Commons that a review would be carried out into the 'bedroom tax', saying: “To be honest, lots of wildly different figures have been cited about the policy’s impact. That is why we are commissioning independent research to understand its impact. I suspect that it varies enormously between one part of the country and another, and one local authority and another.”  Read more on the Independent website.

Housing Benefit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Ms Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether the under-occupancy penalty will be included in the research he has commissioned into the effect of housing benefit changes; what the terms of reference for this research will be; whether a public consultation will be held as part of this research; and when this research is expected to be published.  

Esther McVey: A consortium has been commissioned to carry out a two year monitoring of the effects of the removal of the spare room subsidy measure. The research will include effects of the measures on supply issues, impacts in rural areas as well as effects on financial circumstances and vulnerable individuals. The evaluation includes research with claimants, social landlords, local authority staff and voluntary organisations. A public consultation is not being undertaken as part of this research. The evaluation is taking place over a two year period, starting from April 2013, with initial findings available in 2014 and a final report published in late 2015.

Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Ms Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

(1) what the minimum floor space is that can constitute a bedroom for the purposes of the under-occupancy charge;

 (2) whether a minimum floor space applies to a bedroom for the purposes of the under occupancy penalty.

Steve Webb: The removal of the spare room subsidy does not apply a minimum floor space for bedrooms. It takes account of the number of bedrooms, as designated by the landlord, and compares this with the composition of the household to establish whether or not a reduction due to under-occupation applies.

Bedroom Tax – Parliamentary Oral Answer

Ms Harriet Harman (Camberwell and Peckham) (Lab): The bedroom tax is going to hit people all around the country. It is bad enough in my borough of Southwark, but even worse in the Deputy Prime Minister’s city of Sheffield, where 5,027 people will be hit. This is not a policy to tackle under-occupation because these people cannot move, and they have no choice but to pay. That is why it is called the bedroom tax. People only get housing benefit if they are on a low income. Will he admit to the House that this is deeply unfair and will make people on low incomes worse off?

The Deputy Prime Minister: The problem that the right hon. and learned Lady cannot duck is that 1.8 million households are waiting to get on to social housing provision and 1 million bedrooms are standing empty. It does not make sense to have a benefits system that continues to support this mismatch between people needing places to live and empty bedrooms, and that is what we are trying to address. As with so many things in the reform of welfare, why were there no reforms of any meaningful description under Labour yet now Labour Members baulk at every single tough decision that we must take?