Housing

Yvonne Fovargue Excerpts

Wednesday 5th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) (Lab)]

Thank you for calling me, Madam Deputy Speaker. I, too, welcome the Minister to his post.

I want to discuss some policies that have not yet been mentioned. The first is the bedroom tax, or under-occupation penalty, which is blatantly unfair to social housing tenants. Many of them have lived in their properties for a considerable time and regard them not as housing stock assets but as their homes—homes with memories, in which they have built their lives surrounded by families and friends. Leaving that aside—if it can be left aside—I have to say that this blanket policy shows absolutely no understanding of the mix of housing stock in boroughs such as Wigan. Members of Wigan and Leigh Housing, my local housing trust, came to London to meet the previous Housing Minister—who has, shall we say, gone on to higher things—to explain the current predicament.

Wigan has an over-supply of three-bedroom properties, which constitute about 50% of our social housing stock, and not enough one and two-bedroom properties. More than 4,300 of our 22,500 tenants will be affected by the under-occupation penalty, and they will have no real choice. They must pay the penalty, or move to private rented properties that will cost more. It has been estimated that if only a quarter of them want to move, it will take 10 years to re-house them at the current rate. In the meantime, how are they to pay the penalty? There is already concern about the rise of the payday lenders among tenants of social housing. Our tenants are taking out payday loans to maintain their household budgets because of the increased costs of food and fuel. Wigan has been described as one of the most car-dependent communities in Britain: people need their cars in order to get to work.

All those problems will be compounded by the bedroom tax, which will force residents to pay at least 14% for one extra bedroom and 25% for two. It should not be forgotten that housing benefit is an in-work benefit which is paid to hard-working people on low incomes, or to pensioners who have worked all their lives with little or no occupational pension. The bedroom tax will add a further pressure to their already overstretched income. It will push them into the outstretched arms of the payday lenders in order to cover their day-to-day living expenses, causing them to fall into a spiral of debt.

What point is there in forcing my constituent who is a single dad who has his two children at the weekends to move into a non-existent one-bedroom property? How will that help the family? If he does not move, he will be charged to remain where he is. How will his financial contributions to his children’s upbringing be maintained? This is both unfair and unworkable.

How will forcing the grandparents who came to see me to move into a one-bedroom property help their family? They look after their grandchildren at the weekend so their mum can work. They are all doing as the Government wish by supporting their family, but they will be forced to pay for that. That is not justice or fairness; it is taking money from those who can least afford it.

I have mentioned how difficult it is to balance the family budget, and another measure may well add to that problem: the payment of housing benefit to the tenant rather than directly to the landlord, where the tenant wishes. I have had direct experience of that, as I was involved in a pilot scheme with the private sector when the private sector tenants were paid direct. Our local authority was so concerned about this matter that the Labour government gave additional money to pilot areas in order to work with the private tenants on budgeting and opening bank accounts and to identify their vulnerabilities. That work was greatly needed. An independent assessment of the pilot credited the success of that St Helens scheme to the intensive work done by Citizens Advice locally. However, no extra money will be given for that work in future, and Wigan and Leigh Housing and its tenant representatives are very concerned that payment arrears will result if this scheme is introduced without proper financial guidance and support on money management. They also fear that there will inevitably be evictions and a rise in homelessness, and Crisis is also concerned about that.

I am also concerned about the extension of the shared accommodation rule to the under-35s, as that will also exacerbate the homelessness problem. Wigan and Leigh Housing is working with Citizens Advice to assist people affected by this rule by drawing up property lists and trying to match properties and individuals, but people are rightly concerned about moving into shared accommodation with others whom they do not know, and some are saying, “Actually, I’d rather sofa-surf than do that.”

These changes are individually harmful, but they are cumulatively disastrous, and they show no understanding of the northern towns and their people, or their problems. They will not create sustainable and supportive communities. Instead, they will hit individuals who are trying to do the right thing. Debt levels will increase, and the payday lenders are already circling my estates, waiting to prey on people being forced by the Government to pay to have a family life in their own community.

[Several hon. Members]

rose—