HAs To Set Their Own Rents By 2020

Speaking at the Commons CLG select committee inquiry into the extension of Right to Buy, NHF chief David Orr revealed plans to table an amendment to the welfare bill which would allow housing associations to set their own rents. Orr said that HAs should be independent to set their own rents, and the NHF will lobby for an end to government-set rents by 2020. He said the government “should not be in the area of setting rents” and Whitehall’s involvement in this area for 17 years had been “an abject shambles”. I’m not convinced that it should be right for government to decide the income of charities in this way,” Orr said. Read more on the Parliament website.

IDS in Bid to Tax Disability Cash and Cap Child Benefit

Benefits for the disabled could be taxed and child benefit capped for those with more than two children under plans to further cut the welfare bill. Iain Duncan Smith is arguing that disabled benefits should be increased for the poor and subsidised by taxing the handouts for better-off claimants. He is also pressing a reluctant David Cameron and George Osborne to restrict child benefit to two children for new claimants. As well as saving money, he believes it would encourage welfare claimants to have smaller families. Read more on the Sunday Times website.