Oral Answers to Questions

Catherine McKinnell Excerpts

Wednesday 12th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that this is a good example of a British industry that is succeeding. If we look at Honda, Nissan, Toyota or Jaguar Land Rover, we see really good news in our automotive sector. We now need to get behind it and encourage it to have as much of its supply chain onshore as possible. That is beginning to happen in these industries, and I hope for further progress in the months ahead.

[Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle upon Tyne North) (Lab)]

Q14. This week, Newcastle city council has revealed that rent arrears have increased by more than £550,000 since the bedroom tax was introduced in April. Furthermore, 60% of affected households are falling into arrears. When will the Prime Minister admit that this devastating policy risks costing more than it saves?

[The Prime Minister]

We ended the spare room subsidy because we did not think it was fair to give to people in council houses a subsidy that those in private rented accommodation did not have. There is now a question for the Labour party: if it is to have this welfare cap, will it now tell us whether it will reverse this change? Will you? [Interruption.] The shadow Chancellor is shaking his head. Is that a no? That is right. After all the talk of the last few weeks—the iron discipline we were going to hear about, the welfare cap they were telling us about—they have failed the first test.