Homelessness and Rough Sleeping

Debate between Baroness Hanham and Lord Kinnock

Wednesday 24th July 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, I totally agree with my noble friend and I accept that benefits are a requirement. I am afraid that I cannot respond on how they are assessed at the moment and I will write to both noble Lords on that.

[Lord Kinnock]

My Lords, when the evidence from the National House-Building Council is that the bedroom tax is forcing people out of even low-rent social housing, which is still too expensive for new tenants to take up, could it not be said, fairly, that the Government are, through their policies, making their own contribution to the increase in homelessness and rough sleeping?

Housing: New Homes

Debate between Baroness Hanham and Lord Kinnock

Tuesday 8th January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, again, local authorities and their local plans need to take account of both those matters. It is certainly true that we hope to see the preservation of playing fields, and that the legacy of the Olympics is to be encouraged—exactly the point that my noble friend has made. Of course, it does not make sense, as we have seen recently, to build on flood plains if it is not necessary. However, that is a matter for local authorities’ judgment in terms of the amount of housing they need and where they need to put it.

[Lord Kinnock]

Is it not clear that the cap on housing benefit means that very large numbers of people now working and living in central London will not, in the course of this year, be able to live near their place of work? Does that not make it a matter of emergency for the Government to undertake a building programme that will mean that affordable housing is available to the people who serve this great city in both the public and private sectors in all capacities? Is it not a dreadful reality that the combination of the cap on housing benefit and the paucity of affordable housing in the public and private sectors will be monstrous in its effects on lower-paid people in this city?

[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, it is also monstrous that we are left in the financial situation that we are. That is one reason why the welfare budget has had to be looked at over the past few years. There is also little evidence, except in one or two of the major boroughs, that people are having to move out of London to find housing as a result of the housing benefit situation. We are pushing very hard for the building of affordable housing in the light of whatever local authorities believe they need.

Public Disorder: Eviction from Social Housing

Debate between Baroness Hanham and Lord Kinnock

Thursday 15th September 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, I think there is probably a difference between people who are paying for their own accommodation and those who are being cared for or given accommodation by local authorities at a subsidised rent. As I said in my previous answer, this is not a matter that can be dealt with at the moment because the law would have to be changed to enable people convicted of anti-social behaviour or a crime committed not within their local area to be evicted. We have seen some spectacularly dreadful sights in our country recently and it is only right that we should be able to consider whether there are other ways of dealing with this. That is what is being done.

[Lord Kinnock]

My Lords, we are having difficulty getting answers from Ministers to the very specific Questions set out on the Order Paper, whether about consultations with the biggest of the trade unions in the British police service or on the question of families. As a compassionate woman herself, will the Minister tell us whether she believes that there should be a change in the law that would enable the families of people involved in and convicted of rioting offences to be evicted from their homes—yes or no?

[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, I cannot possibly pre-empt consultation.