Housing Benefit

Part of the debate – in Westminster Hall at 3:34 pm on 15 March 2001.

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Photo of Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn Labour, Islington North 3:34, 15 March 2001

I was not for a moment suggesting that that was the case. I was merely drawing a parallel between the misery caused and the horrendous result of inefficiency in benefit delivery for the people who receive it.

The BFI report stated:

"The Council is also seriously criticised for under-resourcing the work of the fraud investigation and ITNET is criticised for its lack of commitment to overpayment recovery. The report contains a large number of detailed recommendations designed to improve the administration of benefits...A detailed action plan...has been drawn up...the council will advise the DSS of its full commitment to implement that action plan as part of its overall housing benefit recovery strategy."

Again, I invite the Minister seriously to consider the performance of the company, the cost of its inefficiency to the public purse and the social and emotional costs to people who may be thrown out of a private rented flat, with little chance of finding anywhere else to live. That is an absolute scandal; I know that the Minister shares my concerns about the matter and I hope that she will be resolute in her dealings with the housing benefit companies.

I represent an inner-London borough, an area of high housing stress, high housing costs and a massive property boom. Indeed, one sometimes feels that one is living in the midst of people who see everything in terms of liquidating assets: in other words, selling property. The philosophy of everyone, including the council, is to get rid of whatever property they have because it is a way of raising more money.

The inefficiency of housing benefit is compounded by rising rent levels in the private sector, which means that unless people under housing stress are nominated for a local authority or housing association property they have no chance whatever of staying in the borough. A two-bedroomed flat in my constituency, even on a major thoroughfare such as the Holloway road, costs £150,000 to £200,000 and those prices are going up rapidly all the time. Buying a house is impossible even for someone on double or treble average income in London--never mind the country as a whole. If people can get a nomination to a council or housing association property and keep it, that is fine--they will have some security and, one hopes, a reasonable place to live--but the shortage of housing means that many people are living in overcrowded council flats that are often damp and in some cases poorly maintained, with limited possibility of a transfer.

I invite the Minister to reflect on our housing strategy, perhaps not today but as part of a wider consideration. I compliment the Government on the fact that a great deal of money has been invested in housing improvements and repairs. The quality of life for many people on estates has improved dramatically over the past three years as a result of new roofs, new windows, new drainage systems, new central heating systems, anti-crime initiatives and so on. All such improvements are welcome. Estates are more habitable than they were three or four years ago, and I compliment the Government on that. However, if we are to prevent London from becoming a two-class city, in which the rich live in expensive central London and the poor are exported to the most distant suburbs or even further away, we must invest more money in affordable rented housing. I understand where the Government are coming from when they say that they want specialist housing for teachers and police officers, but we also need specialist housing for postmen, hospital cleaners and so on. One cannot restrict such housing to a few groups.

We are spending vast amounts on housing benefit for people in private rented accommodation. I gave an idea of the cost of buying property in my constituency; to rent, one is talking about £200 or £300 a week. Councils often pay £500 a week or more for leased property and, if tenants are on housing benefit, we end up paying that through the public purse. In the longer run, it would be much cheaper to invest in purchasing and building new property for affordable rent than to subsidise private landlords through housing benefit. The Select Committee has looked at that; I understand that rapid and sudden changes could have the perverse effect of reducing the amount of available property. However, we must look at our desperate social housing needs. Unless we do, London's housing problems will be ignored and great numbers of people will be forced out of London. It is a serious issue. I recognise that that is the flip side of the experience of other hon. Members, particularly those representing constituencies in the north-east and north-west, where council accommodation is often under-occupied. We cannot tell the poor of London to move somewhere else: they have families, jobs and commitments. I invite the Government to think about that.

The 1974 Labour Government were concerned about housing and did a lot to expand council housing stock. Mr. Love and I were members of Haringey council at various times in the 1970s and 1980s; it routinely completed up to 1,000 new dwellings a year. Indeed, my hon. Friend was chair of the housing committee at one point.