Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Iain Duncan Smith and Adam Holloway

Monday 11th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Adam Holloway (Gravesham) (Con)]

4. What assessment he has made of the availability of one-bedroom homes for single-person households to downsize to following the housing benefit changes due to take effect in April 2013.

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith)]

There are about 400,000 working age households on housing benefit in under-occupied social housing in Great Britain who require just one bedroom according to the size criteria. There are more than 1.1 million one-bedroom properties in the social rented sector in England and 730,000 one-bedroom properties in the private rented sector. The availability of housing varies from area to area and is constantly changing. During 2011-12, there were about 112,000 new lettings of one-bedroom properties in England in the social rented sector alone.

[Mr Holloway]

Will there be an improvement in the position of disabled children in Gravesham under the spare room subsidy?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. As the law stands, when a local authority agrees that a family needs an extra bedroom because their child’s disability means that they are unable to share, the family can be entitled to the spare room subsidy in respect of that extra bedroom. As with housing benefit claims, the determination of whether their disability requires them to have an extra bedroom is a matter for the local authority to decide with the help of DWP guidance and medical evidence. This week we will issue final guidance to local authorities on a number of areas, including this one, that will confirm the position that the judgment in Burnip, Trengove and Gorry applies to both the social rented sector and the private rented sector.