Housing Benefit Changes

EDM number 309 in 1996-97, proposed by Lynne Jones on 04/12/1996.

This this House notes that when the rent acts regulating private rents were repealed, the Secretary of State for the Environment stated that housing benefit would be available for tenants who could not afford the market rent and that a key component of Government policy was to ensure that deregulation did not price lower-income households out of the market; further notes that the cost of housing benefits was growing last year at a rate of ú7 million per week; believes that this has been the direct result of Government policy; therefore condemns the budget proposals to restrict housing benefit payments to an amount equivalent to the average local rent for a suitably-sized home, which, by definition, will affect 50 per cent. of all applicants, as well as the proposal to define a suitable home for single people aged under 60 years as a room in a shared house, thus forcing single people into houses in multiple occupation, which the Government has recognised represent the most unfit, unsafe form of housing; calls on the Government to recognise that these proposals will make their policies on homelessness unworkable, will put in jeopardy rent deposit guarantee schemes such as those in Birmingham, where rents for over 90 per cent. of claimants are above the local reference rent, and to withdraw them; and suggests that, in line with the new policy of spend to save, the Government should also reverse the cuts in local authority and housing association housing that have been a feature of each of the Chancellor's budgets.

This motion has been signed by a total of 68 MPs.

MP	Date	Constituency	Party	Type
Lynne Jones	04/12/1996	Birmingham, Selly Oak		Proposed
Ken Purchase	04/12/1996	Wolverhampton North East		Signed
Helen Jackson	04/12/1996	Sheffield, Hillsborough		Signed
Roseanna Cunningham	05/12/1996	Perth and Kinross		Signed
Bill Etherington	05/12/1996	Sunderland North		Signed
John Evans	05/12/1996	St Helens North		Signed
Maria Fyfe	05/12/1996	Glasgow, Maryhill		Signed
Norman Godman	05/12/1996	Greenock and Port Glasgow		Signed
Tony Banks	05/12/1996	Newham North West		Signed
Gerry Steinberg	05/12/1996	Durham, City of		Signed
Audrey Wise	05/12/1996	Preston		Signed
Lawrence Cunliffe	05/12/1996	Leigh		Signed
John Cummings	05/12/1996	Easington		Signed
Tom Cox	05/12/1996	Tooting		Signed
Colin Pickthall	05/12/1996	West Lancashire		Signed
Dennis Skinner	05/12/1996	Bolsover		Signed
Peter Hardy	05/12/1996	Wentworth		Signed
Nick Harvey	05/12/1996	North Devon		Signed
Bill Michie	05/12/1996	Sheffield, Heeley		Signed
Rhodri Morgan	05/12/1996	Cardiff West		Signed
Keith Bradley	05/12/1996	Manchester, Withington		Signed
Michael Clapham	05/12/1996	Barnsley West & Penistone		Signed
Glenda Jackson	06/12/1996	Hampstead & Highgate		Signed
Harry Barnes	06/12/1996	North East Derbyshire		Signed
Donald Anderson	09/12/1996	Swansea East		Signed
Eric Illsley	10/12/1996	Barnsley Central		Signed
Robert Litherland	10/12/1996	Manchester Central		Signed
Gerry Sutcliffe	10/12/1996	Bradford South		Signed
Paul Tyler	10/12/1996	North Cornwall		Signed
Terry Davis	11/12/1996	Birmingham, Hodge Hill		Signed
Kenneth Eastham	11/12/1996	Manchester, Blackley		Signed
Jack Thompson	11/12/1996	Wansbeck		Signed
Dennis Turner	11/12/1996	Wolverhampton South East		Signed
Dafydd Wigley	11/12/1996	Caernarfon		Signed
Ian Davidson	11/12/1996	Glasgow, Govan		Signed
Jeremy Corbyn	11/12/1996	Islington North		Signed
Michael Connarty	11/12/1996	Falkirk East		Signed
Eric Clarke	11/12/1996	Midlothian		Signed
Richard Burden	11/12/1996	Birmingham, Northfield		Signed
Edward O'Hara	11/12/1996	Knowsley South		Signed
Alan Meale	11/12/1996	Mansfield		Signed
Eddie Loyden	12/12/1996	Liverpool, Garston		Signed
Ken Livingstone	12/12/1996	Brent East		Signed
Martyn Jones	12/12/1996	Clwyd South West		Signed
Robert Hughes	12/12/1996	Aberdeen North		Signed
John Heppell	12/12/1996	Nottingham East		Signed
Llew Smith	12/12/1996	Blaenau Gwent		Signed
Neil Gerrard	16/12/1996	Walthamstow		Signed
Mike Watson	16/12/1996	Glasgow Central		Signed
Hugh Bayley	17/12/1996	York, City of		Signed
Mike Hall	17/12/1996	Warrington South		Signed
Andrew Faulds	17/12/1996	Warley East		Signed
James Callaghan	17/12/1996	Heywood & Middleton		Signed
Kate Hoey	13/01/1997	Vauxhall		Signed
Gordon Prentice	14/01/1997	Pendle		Signed
Alice Mahon	14/01/1997	Halifax		Signed
Eric Martlew	14/01/1997	Carlisle		Signed
Ann Clwyd	14/01/1997	Cynon Valley		Signed
Harry Cohen	14/01/1997	Leyton		Signed
John Gunnell	15/01/1997	Leeds South and Morley		Signed
Peter Pike	16/01/1997	Burnley		Signed
Mildred Gordon	16/01/1997	Bow and Poplar		Signed
Terry Rooney	21/01/1997	Bradford North		Signed
Jeff Ennis	23/01/1997	Barnsley East		Signed
Robert Wareing	27/01/1997	Liverpool, West Derby		Signed
Nigel Jones	04/02/1997	Cheltenham		Signed
Tommy Graham	05/02/1997	Renfrew West and Inverclyde		Signed
Jamie Cann	03/03/1997	Ipswich		Signed

Download raw data as csv or xml.

The information on this website is reproduced under Parliamentary Licence and may be reused under the same license, licenses can be obtained from OPSI.