Clause 27
Welfare Reform Bill
9:45 pm
Danny Alexander (Shadow Minister and Disability Spokesperson, Work & Pensions; Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move amendmentNo. 257, in clause 27, page 19, line 15, at end insert
‘and those categories of tenants to whom it applies’.
In proposing the amendment I feel a little like the minister in my constituency whose sermon was eaten by his dog. When he arrived in the pulpit he said, “I am going to speak to you as the Lord directs, but I shall try to do better next week.” The purpose of the amendment is fairly clear. There has been some controversy surrounding the local housing allowance and we will no doubt go into that in more detail in our next sitting. In respect of the amendment there has also been some controversy about the categories of tenants. I notice that the Minister’s supporting cast has left the room, so perhaps now is a good time to get some concessions out of him.
The question to which I want an answer from the Minister is which categories the local housing allowance will apply to. Clearly, the Government’s intention is to look at housing allowance for tenants in the private sector only; tenants in social housing whether it is provided by registered social landlords, housing associations or local authorities, and, if I remember correctly, those in pre-1989 tenancies, would also be exempt from the local housing allowance. However, that is not stated anywhere in the Bill and as far as I can see from how the Bill is constructed it does not allow that to be made clear in regulations, although the Minister will correct me if I am wrong.
Concern has been expressed about the possibility of rolling out local housing allowance to the categories of tenancy that I have outlined—it is not an exhaustive list, but the Minister knows what I mean. There has also been a lot of concern to roll out the local housing allowance to the social housing sector without further primary legislation. I know that Ministers have decided that that is not what they want to do and it would be worrying to the landlords. I hope that the Minister can clarify that the provisions of the Bill will apply only to tenants in receipt of housing benefit in private sector tenancies and not to any other categories. Should any proposals be made either to extend it to social housing or more generally by virtue of a pilot, that would be subject to further primary legislation and could not be achieved simply by regulation under this Bill.
Anne McGuire (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Disabled People), Department for Work and Pensions; Stirling, Labour)
I congratulate the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey on something that appeared to be off the cuff. I am not being patronising; I thought that he made a good job of a proposal that we did not expect to reach this evening.
I reassure the hon. Gentleman that as set out in the draft regulations we do not propose to apply the local housing allowance approach to tenants currently excluded from it in the pathfinders including those in the social sector. For a customer to be entitled to housing benefit there must be an appropriate maximum housing benefit in his case. That is the basic condition of entitlement. As members of the Committee are aware, proposals for housing benefit were set out in the welfare reform Green Paper. Although our plans for rolling out local housing allowance to the private rented sector met with strong support across the sectors, many of those who responded to our Green Paper raised concerns, which the hon. Gentleman expressed tonight, about the introduction of a local housing allowance into the social sector. We have listened carefully to those concerns, and we stated in our response that we will not proceed with local housing allowance in that sector.
Draft regulation 13C, which has been circulated to the Committee, sets out the circumstances in which a local authority must calculate an appropriate maximum housing benefit using the LHA rules. It lists all the categories of customer to whom the local housing allowance is not to apply where circumstances in regulation 13C arise. For example, local housing allowance will not apply where a landlord is a registered social landlord, local authority or registered charity, where the rent is payable—I admire the hon. Gentleman’s memory—in respect of a pre-1989 tenancy agreement and includes a site charge or mooring charge for a mobile home, caravan or houseboat, or where rent under the tenancy is attributable to board and attendance.
I hope that I have given the hon. Gentleman the reassurance that he sought. I am delighted to offer reassurance to those who responded to the Green Paper consultation to raise concerns, and I ask him to consider withdrawing his amendment.
Danny Alexander (Shadow Minister and Disability Spokesperson, Work & Pensions; Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, Liberal Democrat)
I am grateful to the Minister for that response. It has indeed offered me the reassurance that I was looking for. I should have made it clear in my opening remarks that it is quite right to say that local housing allowance has proved successful in many ways in the pilots. I will have a chance to flesh that out more during the clause stand part debate, but as she has put her response on the record, and so that we can go home tonight, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.