Housing Benefit Cuts Will 'Push Poor Out Of South', Experts Warn

Large swaths of southern England will become off limits to housing benefit recipients in a little more than a decade because of the government's proposed plans to cut welfare bills – triggering a huge migration of the poor to the north – according to a study by housing experts. The work, by the Chartered Institute of Housing, shows that before 2025 rents on most two-bedroom properties in the south will become unaffordable to those claiming local housing allowance. Within 15 years, much of London's commuter belt will become too expensive for the state to pay for the poor to live in. The capital would be unaffordable within a decade. The findings reinforce concerns expressed by Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury. Williams attacked the government's welfare plans, saying he was particularly concerned about the cuts in housing benefit. Williams said he had "a lot of worries" about the government's plans, due to be spelled out this week, to force the long-term unemployed to do four weeks of unpaid work. He said: "People who are struggling to find work and struggling to find a secure future are, I think, driven further into a downward spiral of uncertainty, even despair, when the pressure is on in that way." Read more on the Guardian website.