Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for CLG if he will place in the Library a copy of each item of correspondence received by his Department from local authorities on the potential effects of reductions in local housing allowance on (a) homelessness and (b) local authority budgets.
Grant Shapps: The CLG receives a large amount of correspondence from local authorities regarding a range of issues. Local housing allowance rates in some areas are too high and give some housing benefit customers access to properties that even people with above average incomes could not afford. This was not fair to the taxpayer and could not be sustained. We therefore had to make changes to local housing allowance by introducing housing benefit caps and moving to the 30th percentile of local market rents. We want people to continue to have access to decent housing but the support provided needs to be founded on principles of fairness, affordability and making work pay. These changes mean some people may have to move but up to 30% of properties should be affordable in every area and the homelessness safety net remains in place for those who need it.