Shelter chief says poor will be priced out of many areas of London
Large swaths of London will become „largely unaffordable” to housing benefit recipients from next year, says an authoritative new study from Cambridge University.
But the Cambridge study, commissioned by the housing charity Shelter, found that rents on most two-bedroom properties in London would be more expensive than the new caps. It also claimed that people would be forced to move out of their homes, not only in parts of central London but in many of the capital’s suburbs.
The analysis follows revelations in last week’s Observer that inner London councils were block-booking bed and breakfasts outside the capital to house the tens of thousands of poor families that would be forced to move.
Liam Smith, the council leader in Barking and Dagenham, said: „We will need money that we currently don’t have to deal with that situation. We simply haven’t budgeted for this additional pressure on our finances.”
Karen Buck, the local Labour MP, described the move as „truly shocking”. She added: „Westminster council’s pitch to the government is that housing benefit cuts can only work by removing homelessness protection built up over decades.”
While the problems are most acute in London, figures published on the blog Left Foot Forward reveal how the cap, as well as a series of other housing benefit reforms, will also hit families across the country.
Many outside the capital will be hit by the decision to reduce the rate at which the local housing allowance is set from the median of local rents to the 30th percentile.
Jurnalul Economic 