Danny Alexander (Shadow Minister and Disability Spokesperson, Work & Pensions; Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey, Liberal Democrat)

I thank the hon. Member for Glasgow, North-West (John Robertson) for that comment.

The amendment is designed to address an issue that my hon. Friends and I, as well as other hon. Members, regard as important. Its purpose is to provoke a discussion about single room rent, which the Bill will convert to a shared room rate under the new local housing allowance, although the effect of the two is pretty much the same. The Bill will provide tenants under the age of 25 with a considerably lower rate of housing benefit than everyone else. It is my contention that shared room rent should be abolished and that everyone, no matter what age, should have access to housing benefits on the same basis. The single room rent is unfair: it is discriminatory; it causes hardship, poverty and homelessness; and it should be abolished.

I note that early-day motions 816 and 2573 on the subject have between them attracted the support of 169 hon. Members, including, I am pleased to say, the hon. Members for North-East Derbyshire (Natascha Engel) and for Daventry (Mr. Boswell), who are members of the Committee. I hope they will contribute to the debate, because the issue is important for the long term.

Since its introduction in October 1996, the single room rent restriction has limited the maximum amount of housing benefit that a single private sector claimant under the age of 25 can receive for the average cost of a room in a shared property, regardless of the property occupied. In contrast, single people aged over 25can receive housing benefit for one-bedroom, self-contained properties or shared accommodation. Anyone aged under 25 and reliant on housing benefit who chooses to live, for example, in a self-contained bedsit or self-contained, one-bedroom accommodation will find that their benefit does not in any way cover their costs. In fact, even the amount that people receive to rent a single room in shared accommodation is usually insufficient to pay for what is available locally.

The restriction has been carried out in the local housing allowance pathfinder areas where the new benefit has been piloted, and we shall no doubt discuss it in more detail in our clause stand part debate. Unless the Under-Secretary tells us otherwise, it seems that the restriction will be continued under the new title of the shared room rate in respect of the local housing allowance roll-out proposed under the Bill.

Revisions to the definition of the single room rate have been found to have little impact on the problems that young people face because of the current restrictions.

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