Council attempts to move 500 families 'due to housing benefit cap'
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
A London council has blamed the government's decision to cap housing benefit for its attempts to house up to 500 families in Stoke-on-Trent.
Newham Council said it is struggling to afford to house low-income families and is, “alongside a number of other London councils”, exploring working with housing associations outside the borough to provide homes for those in “immediate need”.
It said the gap between market rents and the housing allowance is too great and has offered a housing association in Stoke the opportunity to lease homes to it.
A Newham Council spokesman said the authority is committed to securing the very best accommodation for people in tough economic times.
“However, the government's decision to cap housing benefit payments is exacerbating the problem and making it harder for low-income families to get a roof over their head,” the spokesman added.
"Newham - along with other London councils - is under significant pressure. We are doing everything we can to ensure we have good-quality, affordable housing which is fairly distributed.
“Alongside a number of other London councils, we are also exploring the option of working with housing associations outside the borough to house people with an immediate need in the private sector, when there is no other alternative."
News of efforts to rehouse families outside the capital follows a London Councils report, published in November, which estimated that the cap to reduce the maximum amount of housing benefit each week could affect 133,000 families in London.
Alison Garnham, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, described the situation as the beginning of what she fears will become a “major crisis” for low-income families in London.
“It is important to know that each and every London borough is doing everything it can to prevent families having to move away from where their kids are at school and where they have support networks of family and friends,” she said. “But we need ministers to think again about their policy, which has the inevitable consequence of forcing families out of their homes.
“While people outside London may be shocked by the size of rents housing benefit helps to pay for, these families have no choice.
“Ministers need a credible plan for dealing with market failure in London, where landlords are demanding high rents for modest homes well beyond the means of low-income, working families.”
The Children's Society said a range of pressures is combining to force families out of London.
Sam Royston, policy adviser at the Children’s Society, said: "It is not just the cap on housing benefit that is putting pressure on families to move out of the capital.
“We are equally concerned that the cap on out of work benefits is forcing some schools to plan for an exodus of children.
“This is the reality of how children's lives are going to be affected by a policy that will inevitably leave them as the victims.
“The government's own impact assessment indicates that approaching a quarter of a million children will be in families affected."
A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions conceded that some people will have to move as a result of the housing benefit cap but added that the level of the cap remains “generous”.
The spokesman for Newham Council said that besides exploring the option of working with housing associations outside the borough, the authority is also consulting on a scheme to license all private landlords in a bid to “stamp out rogue landlords and drive up standards in the private rented sector”, which accounts for more than 35 per cent of the borough's housing stock.