Armed Forces

Tom Blenkinsop Excerpts

Tuesday 25th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

More than eight months ago one of my constituents contacted me, fearing that, come April this year, her sons would be left homeless, owing to what has become known as the bedroom tax. Like thousands of other people across Teesside and East Cleveland and the United Kingdom, my constituent, Alison, would have had to find an extra £100 per month because she was deemed to have spare rooms. For those hon. Members not familiar with Alison’s story and therefore questioning the relevance of the bedroom tax to this debate, I hasten to add that her two sons are both serving in the armed forces, one of them on the front line in Afghanistan as we speak. We have a proud military tradition in Teesside and East Cleveland and Alison’s story rightly began to attract attention from the local media.

It was not too long ago that the armed forces covenant was enshrined in law. This was meant to recognise that the whole nation has a moral obligation to members of the armed forces and their families, and it established how they should expect to be treated and to redress the disadvantages that the armed forces community faces in comparison with other citizens.

Alison has been a tenant of the same housing association for nearly two decades, and in this home she had single-handedly brought up her twin boys. Despite this history, she spoke to her housing officer about moving to a smaller property, only to be told that the association does not have enough one-bedroom properties to meet the needs of everyone. Alison was not opposing the Government’s policy out of stubbornness. She was trying her hardest to adapt to it but, as we are finding out across the country, the policy is one of the most ill-thought out that this Government have implemented, and the appropriate accommodation simply is not available.

In the months after Alison initially brought her situation to my attention, national interest in the issue understandably peaked. Alison’s case was even raised by the Leader of the Opposition during Prime Minister’s questions, in which the Prime Minister insisted that the changes were “fair”. Nevertheless, in early March this year, the coalition Government performed an apparent U-turn when they made the following exemption:

“Adult children who are in the armed forces”—

including the reserve forces—

“but who continue to live with parents will be treated as continuing to live at home, even when deployed on operations…In addition housing benefit recipients will not be subject to a non-dependent deduction, that is, the amount that those who are working are expected to contribute to the household expenses, until an adult child returns home.”—[Official Report, 12 March 2013; Vol. 560, c. 9WS.]

Members may now be thinking that that is an excellent outcome and that the Government have realised their mistake and put it right, as did I, but unfortunately Alison’s story, and more than likely that of many others like her, does not end with this apparently successful change in policy.

It has been almost three months since the bedroom tax came into being and I am sure Members will have noticed the impact of the policy on their work load. Alison’s family has still been hit by the bedroom tax and she is now in rent arrears. The rushed U-turn has left the new rules unclear, with local authorities interpreting them with varying degrees of success. Unfortunately, because of the way in which the Government have worded the regulations, only a tiny number of personnel, primarily reservists, will be exempt. If they lived in barracks prior to going away on operations and/or prior to commencing pre-deployment training, the Department for Work and Pensions holds that they are not the claimant’s non-dependent children. Operations include deployment abroad, pre-deployment and the debriefing process at end of deployment. Therefore, the exemption applies only to a small number of people, and DWP Ministers have confirmed this in response to written questions. To all intents and purposes, the Government seem to be redefining what adult children who are members of the armed forces register as their homes.

It is true that people can have a number of residences. However, for tax purposes, only one home or domicile is used. If, as seems to be suggested by Ministers who have responded to questions on this issue from me and from the shadow Work and Pensions Minister, the Government consider barracks the home of adult children who usually live there, the barracks should be used for tax purposes also. The regulations suggest to working-class young men and women that joining the forces may jeopardise their parents’ home—hardly a wise recruitment strategy.

It is grossly unfair to differentiate on this basis. It is a very mean-spirited technicality. The motion we are here to debate today is one to celebrate and commemorate our armed forces, and the armed forces covenant is a key way for us to do this. It recognises that the whole nation has a moral obligation to members of the armed forces and their families, and it establishes how they should expect to be treated. If that is the law, the least our young adults serving in the armed forces deserve is to have their ability to live in their homes with their families respected, and not to have to worry about their parents while they are on operations and serving their country.

The Government urgently need to clarify their guidelines that were supposed to exempt the families of members of the armed forces from the bedroom tax, yet Ministers seem to have created another discrepancy that is a direct attack on those who are putting their lives on the line to keep us all safe. The Government cannot get away with statements that appear to resolve an issue but which, in reality, are deliberately intended to be obtuse so as not to deliver any such promises. I hope Ministers will be willing to meet me and other concerned MPs to exempt our armed forces finally from this tax.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Robathan]

Sorry, it is for me. I was going to say that he was better at running a marathon than—but then he was very consensual, so I won’t. I pay tribute to his time for the marathon. As he knows, I set him a target, which he beat very easily. Well done.

I am afraid that the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Meg Munn) will have to wait for the White Paper for a decision about moving 38 Signal Regiment from Sheffield. I would like to have heard more discussion from my hon. Friend the Member for Aldershot (Sir Gerald Howarth) about the Supreme Court judgment last week on extending human rights to the battlefield. It is a subject on which Members from both sides of the House may wish to comment. I know that we will be looking carefully at that judgment, and that we have some concerns.

I was sorry to hear about the constituent of the hon. Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Tom Blenkinsop). I understand that my right hon. Friend the Minister of State, Ministry of Defence, the right hon. Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois), wrote to him only yesterday and we do not believe that this is a general problem. Leaving aside the armed forces and reservists, I thought that the Opposition had accepted that we need to make serious savings, as we have been doing over the past three years, for all the reasons that he understands. On this day the newspapers have published the letter from the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr Byrne) which says that there is no money.

[Tom Blenkinsop]

The Government’s policy clearly states that armed forces personnel families are supposed to be exempt but, after three months, it is clear that they are not and that councils throughout the country are interpreting the policy in such a way that only reservists count, not permanent members of the armed forces.

[Mr Robathan]

As I said, my right hon. Friend the Minister has written to the hon. Gentleman. They should have further discussions, because my right hon. Friend knows the details, but I fear that I do not.

My hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Sir Bob Russell) made a wide-ranging speech in which he stood up for Colly, as soldiers used to call Colchester, although I think that they were referring particularly to the military corrective training centre. He also talked about bands. From the Government’s point of view, bands are an integral part of the Army, and indeed of the Royal Marines and the Royal Air Force. Anyone who has ever marched to a band knows how stirring that is. I remember Academy Sergeant Major Huggins at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst saying, “If the hairs on the back of your neck don’t prickle when you hear a military band, you are in the wrong business.” On the Ministry of Defence police, I saw them yesterday at Coulport. They do a good job there and I pay tribute to them on my hon. Friend’s behalf.

The hon. Member for Dudley North (Ian Austin) talked about the Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry. I fear that I cannot pre-empt the White Paper, but I certainly would not want any damage to be done to the recruitment of reservists in Dudley.

My hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Caroline Dinenage) talked about the proud and close relationship between the Navy and her constituency. Indeed, my undistinguished service career began at the admiralty interview board in Gosport. I thought that “Up something or other creek without a paddle” was from Falstaff, but my excellent officials tell me that I am wrong, although I am still going to check it all the same.

The hon. Member for Bridgend (Mrs Moon) does excellent work with the RAF all-party group. It will astonish many to know that I got on so well with Bomber Command that I was made an honorary member of it, so I might just drop in for a quick chat later. My right hon. Friend the Minister tells me that she will certainly receive a reply to her specific question before the summer recess.

My hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Penny Mordaunt) talked about the service complaints commissioner. I am afraid that she will have to discuss that further with my right hon. Friend, but I understand that we are looking at the matter closely.

I was glad to hear the support of the hon. Member for Stalybridge and Hyde (Jonathan Reynolds) for the armed forces. My hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Baron) and I have not dissimilar backgrounds. No Defence Minister wishes to see cuts to the armed forces or defence spending, but I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for coherently explaining the continued need to maintain defence spending throughout the current review. I think that he has done a pretty good job, and the story has been in the newspapers. On my hon. and gallant Friend’s point about reservists, he will also have to wait for the White Paper.

I pay tribute to the hon. and gallant Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) for his service in the Ulster Defence Regiment during difficult times in the Province. He stood up for Northern Ireland, and he was absolutely right that Northern Ireland makes a great contribution—indeed, a disproportionate contribution—to our armed forces.

I share the respect of my hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Mr Jones) for service charities, which do fantastic work. We will ensure that someone gets up to see them, but that might be my right hon. Friend the Minister of State. My advice to my hon. Friend is that a good start would be to set up a military wives’ choir, and I am sure that military husbands and the non-military could be involved.

The hon. Member for Cheltenham (Martin Horwood) was rather cut off in full flow, but I agree with him about the ARRC. I shall shortly be visiting it and its commander, James Bucknall, who is also colonel of the Coldstream Guards, as I am sure that that hon. Members know. On hearing about Charles Irving, I feared that the lieutenant-general whom he speared with a bayonet was British, rather than German. The hon. Member for North Durham and I have sparred across the Dispatch Box for more than three years, but his speech was the most consensual that I have ever heard him make.

I am extremely proud of our armed forces, as I know that we all are, but I am also proud of the work that the Government have done to help to improve the support that we give them. In a consensual manner, let me say that we have built somewhat on work that was done previously. We owe our armed forces our very best efforts, because that is what they give us day in, day out, wherever they are stationed and whatever the conditions. As my right hon. Friend the Minister said in his opening speech, the first duty of Government is the defence of the realm, and we must never forget, and we must thank our armed forces for, the service that they provide in fulfilling that duty on behalf of everyone in the House and the country.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House celebrates and commemorates the contribution of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces and their families, in particular those currently serving overseas; recognises the important introduction of Armed Forces Day in 2006 and urges the nation to come together and champion the Services’ achievements throughout the decades; pays tribute to the UK’s Forces, their families and the charities who do so much to support them; recognises the enormous contribution of the staff who support the UK’s Forces from within Government and the workforces in industry who supply them with world-class equipment; urges all those in public life to seek additional ways to support the Armed Forces Covenant; urges the Government, local authorities, business and charities to deliver the best possible post-service support; and considers the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant essential to uphold, through public policy, the provision of welfare and frontline support.