Cameron to divert £70m to calm housing benefit row
Cathy Newman
Presenter
David Cameron redirects £70m in government cash to calm backbench nerves over a housing benefit cap, but dismisses talk of a U-turn.
Channel 4 News has learned the government is to raid a housing hardship fund to appease Tory backbenchers in urban areas, concerned about benefit cuts.
The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) is to give councils £60m from the discretionary housing allowance and a further £10m from the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG), to prevent poorer families being priced out of London.
The allowance was tripled in the emergency budget, and will now be pressed into action to help prevent an exodus from the capital. The government plans to cap housing benefit at £400 a week for four bedroom houses and £290 for two bedroom flats. But rents in some parts of London exceed that, prompting fears that poorer families will be forced out of the capital or onto the streets.
CutsCheck: concessions on housing benefit cap?
The controversy dominated Prime Minister’s Questions earlier following rumours of a possible concession on the housing benefit cap.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said the PM had “dug himself in” over the 10 per cent cut and asked what advice he would give to a family facing “such a large drop in their income”.
Mr Cameron responded: “We will be having, in the Work Programme, the best and biggest programme to help those people back into work.”
In London, he said, there were 37,390 people who had been on JSA for more than a year and would be affected by the change.
Mr Miliband reiterated a quote from Channel 4 News FactCheck in which a DWP source said: “There are many cases in London that are going to be special cases. If someone’s got a very special case then of course we can look at ameliorating that.”
The source said the £60m hardship fund would be used for that purpose, following representations from Conservative London MPs reported by Channel 4 News on Tuesday.
At Prime Minister’s Questions David Cameron insisted there would be no climbdown over the plans despite claims the policy could drive 200,000 poor people out of the UK’s cities.
No wonder he looks glum. And then we have glummer, the Deputy Prime Minister. No wonder he is back on the fags. Ed Miliband
The prime minister said the government was “sticking by” its proposals, insisting it was not “fair” that claimants lived in properties many workers could only “dream of”.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes is among those who have criticised the “draconian” proposals, saying ministers will have to “negotiate” to get parliamentary approval.
Mr Miliband highlighted the potential for the measures to cause splits in the coalition by referring to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg – who recently confessed to being a secret smoker – and Mr Hughes as “glum and glummer”.
Pointing at the Southwark and Bermondsey MP on the benches opposite, the Labour leader said: “No wonder he looks glum.
“And then we have glummer, the Deputy Prime Minister. No wonder he is back on the fags.”