Housing: Underoccupancy Charge

Baroness Hollis of Heigham Excerpts

Monday 18th November 2013 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Hollis of Heigham]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the underoccupancy charge on the stability of communities.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Freud) (Con)]

My Lords, the impact of the removal of the spare room subsidy on the stability of communities will be assessed over the next two years as part of the independent evaluation currently being undertaken by a consortium which is being led by Ipsos MORI and which includes the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research and the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

[Baroness Hollis of Heigham (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his reply. Good social housing requires stable communities where neighbours look out for each other. That is one of the differences between social housing and the scattered private rented sector. How will half a million disabled families cope without their neighbours’ support because they are forced to move by the bedroom tax? How will frail elderly relatives cope when their middle-aged children who care for them have to move away because of the bedroom tax? Ministers quote the changes to the private rented sector in 2008 but those changes were not retrospective, whereas these are, and that is what is so wrong. Will the Minister undertake to ensure, as a transitional arrangement, that the bedroom tax applies only to new lettings and will he lift the bedroom tax for existing tenants and help us to maintain stable communities on which our civic life is based?

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, the policy is in position and is going through. The latest figures came out last week and showed that it now affects approximately 523 million people—