Umunna speaks up against housing benefit changes in Parliament
Chuka Umunna, Member of Parliament for Streatham, has spoken in Parliament to oppose the governments cuts to housing benefit, highlighting the devastating affect which they will have on Streatham.
Speaking in a debate on the housing benefit changes, Mr Umunna said: “This is particularly pertinent to my constituency. The constituency that I represent is diverse not only ethnically but in regard to the socio-economic demographic of the people who live there”.
Mr Umunna recounted a recent conversation he had with a constituent on the doorstep who, although he did not receive housing benefit himself and fell within the top 1% of earners, was “horrified” at the likely impact of the housing benefit cuts on the local area: “One of the reasons he likes living in my constituency is the diverse nature of the streets and the different parts of the area. He said that he did not want to live in a street where all the people were like lim. He liked the fact there were different people living there.”
The government announced sweeping cuts to housing benefit in both the June Budget and last month’s Comprehensive Spending Review. These include caps relating to different sizes of property and a general cap of rates at the 30th percentile of local market rates, as well as cutting housing benefit for those who have been unemployed and searching for work for over a year.
Mr Umunna also spoke of the pressure which already exists on local housing stock, with a waiting list of over 22,000 in Lambeth for social housing and argued against the reduction of housing benefit for those seeking work for more than a year. According to DWP statistics, there are 865 people in Streatham who fall into this category and who would lose out as a result.
With property prices and rent levels being higher in inner London than elsewhere, the cuts will have a disproportionate affect on areas like Streatham and it is feared that they could lead to many being forced to leave the area entirely.
The housing benefit cuts announced in the June Budget will affect 5,470 households in Lambeth, including 1,520 two-bedroom households seeing their housing allowance fall by an average of £25 a week – totalling £1,300 a year.
Organisations and charities including the National Housing Federation have raised concerns over a potential increase in homelessness as a result of the government’s plans. Commenting on the changes, the NHF’s chief executive David Orr said: “Unless ministers urgently reconsider these punitive housing benefit cuts, we may see more people sleeping rough than at any stage during the last thirty years.”
Crisis chief executive Lesley Morphy, who Mr Umunna recently met with to discuss the housing benefit changes, said:
“Nearly half of those on LHA already face a shortfall between their benefit and their rent of an average of £23 per week, meaning tough choices between rent, food, heating or falling into a vicious spiral of debt.
“These cuts are huge and deadly serious and will affect people across the country, not just in London. We are calling on the Government to look at the facts and impacts and rethink the cuts now.”
Commenting, Mr Umunna said: “Our area will be disproportionately hit by what the government is doing to housing benefit.
“Ministers claim that they are cutting spending in a way which is fair to all parts of society, but these cuts to housing benefit will hit the poor and vulnerable hardest.”
