Employment

Debate between Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville and Lord Freud

Wednesday 21st January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (LD)]

Given the encouraging increase in the employment figures, will the Minister comment on the disappointing fall of 84,000 in the 16 to 24 age bracket? Can he give any information about regional variations? For example, is the problem worse in rural areas?

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, one of the myths about the improvement in employment is that it is concentrated in the south, particularly in London. The reality is that the bulk of the improvement—75% to 80% of it—has taken place outside London. The youth figures are extremely encouraging, because youth JSA figures are now running at some of the lowest levels we have seen for many years.

Housing: Underoccupancy Charge

Debate between Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville and Lord Freud

Tuesday 28th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, that is exactly what the discretionary housing payment is for. It is for local authorities to take decisions, based on their local knowledge, so that they get the funds to the right people. The emerging signs are that we will not spend all the discretionary housing payments this year. I am, however, making sure that a substantial amount of discretionary housing payment goes out next year, for which the total figure will be £165 million.

[Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (LD)]

My Lords, some households with a disabled family member who were allocated a larger property which had been adapted using a disabled facilities grant, are now required to move due to the size criteria changes. Does the Minister think that this is a good use of scarce resources?

[Lord Freud]

One of the fundamental objectives of providing discretionary housing payments is to make sure that where there are significant adaptations in homes for disabled people there will be discretionary housing payments for those people.