Poverty and Social Exclusion

Baroness Sherlock Excerpts

Thursday 17th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

It is clearly vital, as my noble friend says, to close the gap. There are lots of interesting statistics, particularly about what is happening in the London schools that are outperforming—although we do not know exactly how that has happened, and it is vital that we find out. It is the London Challenge, and there are quite a lot of analyses of exactly why that has come about.

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, the long-awaited interim report on the bedroom tax emerged this week. It slipped out at the height of the reshuffle without so much as a ministerial Statement, and it confirms what we knew—that only 4.5% of claimants have downsized, arrears have gone up, half of claimants have cut back on essentials such as food, and a quarter have gone into debt to avoid losing their home. I ask the Minister two questions. First, what assessment have the Government made of the effect of the bedroom tax on child poverty levels? Secondly, given the rather extensive briefing in today’s media that the Liberal Democrats are doing a U-turn on the bedroom tax, is it still government policy?

[Lord Freud]

Maybe I am not the best person to comment on Liberal Democrat manifesto planning. I can, however, assure the House that the removal of the spare room subsidy remains government policy—and I remind the House that this was coalition policy, which was decided in 2010 at the highest levels of government.