While the Coalition faces every increasing criticism over its plans to cap housing benefit, figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that some local authorities in London are paying private tenants huge amounts.
Westminster is the most expensive borough in the United Kingdom and five families are currently receiving an allowance of £2,000 each week in housing benefit payments. The council who recently announced it is cutting 450 jobs in a bid to save £60 million is giving the five families over half a million per year. Elsewhere, private landlords with landlord insurance are housing tenants that are raking in staggering amounts of housing benefit. Under the current system which was introduced by the former Government there is no limit on payments but despite public support for the housing benefits cap introduced by the Coalition they have been forced to defend their plans against claims that a cap could see as many as 20,000 people losing their homes.
Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, said “We have to come back to a fundamental proposition, which is that the housing benefit bill was out of control, we absolutely had to make sure that it was no longer escalating. Lots of people who couldn’t afford to pay a rent of £26,000 were themselves contributing to this and nobody thought it was fair that people on benefits would live in properties having rent paid for them that were far in excess of the rents that were able to be paid in the properties that taxpayers themselves were living in.”
Grant Shapps, the Housing Minister, will also soon publish changes to the local authority guidance to make sure that recently arrived immigrants have their access to council benefit and housing benefit restricted and local residents who have to move home because of the cap are given greater priority.