Housing: Underoccupancy Charge Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Work and Pensions
Lord Martin of Springburn
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Housing: Underoccupancy Charge
Lord Martin of Springburn Excerpts(10 years, 4 months ago)
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Lord Freud
My Lords, I will not. The department is engaged in a massive programme of reform. We have successfully brought in a benefit cap, and we have launched PIP, the universal credit and housing benefit reform, to name just a few.
Lord Martin of Springburn (CB)
My Lords, will the Minister acknowledge that in circumstances where couples are required to leave underoccupied houses, it is not necessarily the case that the house that is vacated will be easily re-let?
Lord Freud
My Lords, the position is that we have got a large number of overcrowded social homes; we have got a very long waiting list, stretching out to 2 million people; and the job of local authorities is to make sure that available homes are matched with the requirement of people who have larger families.