Housing: Underoccupancy Charge

Debate between Baroness Eaton and Lord Freud

Wednesday 20th January 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

This is now a long-standing policy of this Government, to make sure that we tie in the availability of social housing to those who need it. People tend to forget the numbers who are on waiting lists or are in overcrowded accommodation and that this policy of matching available stock to people’s requirements improves their outcomes.

[Baroness Eaton (Con)]

Can my noble friend the Minister tell us what is happening in health and well-being in this country?

[Lord Freud]

We have run a well-being survey since 2012, published by the ONS. I am pleased to report that, on all four key measures of well-being, there has been an improvement every year since the survey started almost four years ago; that is, in life satisfaction, finding activity worthwhile, happiness, and reduction of anxiety.

Social Housing Sector

Debate between Baroness Eaton and Lord Freud

Thursday 14th January 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

The measure will come in in 2018 and there will be regulations within that timescale. As I said, we have this major review—the first really substantial review—and we have been working on that for more than a year now. That will inform our whole policy approach to what is a very important sector, and I hope it will put it on a much sounder footing than it has been.

[Baroness Eaton (Con)]

Could my noble friend tell us the terms of reference and the remit for this review?

[Lord Freud]

We are collecting evidence about the size of the sector, who it supports, where the funding flows are coming from and how it is supported. There are various support sources, including the Supporting People fund and RR. We look to publish this report later this year.

Housing: Underoccupancy Charge

Debate between Baroness Eaton and Lord Freud

Tuesday 3rd November 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

We are actually sympathetic to that point about rural communities, and we ramped up the amount of discretionary housing payments which were particularly targeted at the most remote rural areas, so that the policy could be dealt with by that route.

[Baroness Eaton (Con)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Eaton]

Could my noble friend the Minister say what Her Majesty’s Government have done to support local authorities in mitigating the effects of this policy?

[Lord Freud]

The key route is through the discretionary housing payments, on which we have now spent £470 million in total—£175 million on this particular policy. We have had a range of initiatives to support people, including those living in social housing, into sustained employment. The figure for those in social housing who are workless has now dropped to an all-time low of 39%.

Benefits: Sanctions

Debate between Baroness Eaton and Lord Freud

Thursday 10th September 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

Clearly, one error is one error too many. We work to try to eliminate the error rate, and we have layers of safeguards, for both JSA and ESA, to make sure that we review these cases at each level so that we get it right. Some, of course, will creep through.

[Baroness Eaton (Con)]

Do the Government have any evidence that sanctions are effective?

[Lord Freud]

We have done surveys on this and found that people say that the sanctions regime encourages positive behaviour. According to the figures we have, which have been published, 72% of JSA claimants and 61% of ESA claimants say that it impacts on their behaviour.

Housing: Under-occupancy Charge

Debate between Baroness Eaton and Lord Freud

Tuesday 16th June 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, looking at the position in the round, people move from low-cost social housing to higher-cost private housing, but that allows another family who may have come out of private housing to go into social housing. You have to look at the bill as a whole, and the saving on this particular part of the bill is running at £0.5 billion a year.

[Baroness Eaton (Con)]

Can the Minister explain what the Government are doing with housing associations concerning the removal of the spare room subsidy?

[Lord Freud]

Local authorities and housing associations have responded with a range of programmes to manage the various benefit changes, including this one. It is instructive to look at the reports and accounts put out by housing associations. Affinity Sutton says:

“Overall, the impact on us has been less than expected”.

Sovereign says that a team of 12 tenancy support advisers has kept its arrears low; Midland Heart says that the year has concluded with arrears continuing to fall; A2Dominion says that,

“despite welfare reform changes, rent arrears have fallen”;

and Orbit housing group says:

“Our arrears have decreased … despite the impact of the spare room subsidy”.