THE UK’s failure to build affordable homes has led to a soaring housing-benefit bill – with half a million more people now relying on benefits to pay their rent than when the coalition came to power, warns John Healey MP, a former Labour Treasury minister.
After analysing the figures on housing benefit take-up, he said the government had failed to tackle early enough the central problem of a lack of homes.
Alongside an increase in the number of people renting privately, Healey further claimed the government’s policy to increase rents in council and housing association homes to up to 80% of the local market rent had been disastrous.
With 1.8 million on waiting lists for social housing, hundreds of thousands more have fallen into the hands of private landlords charging increasingly exorbitant rents, with commuter areas outside London such as Surrey Heath and Elmbridge seeing rent hikes of 14% last year.
Spending on housing benefit has risen by £650m a year on average since 2009-10, and at a faster rate than during Labour’s 13 years in power, Healey’s analysis of official Department for Work and Pensions figures finds. The annual housing benefit bill is expected to hit £25bn by 2017.
The number of affordable homes built in 2013-14 was the lowest in a decade – despite the UK’s population rising by five million over the past 12 years.
The introduction of a benefits cap for new claimants in April 2011, which saw the maximum amount a claimant could receive limited to £500 a week for families with children and £350 for individuals, meant spending on housing benefit did fall marginally, by £150m in real terms in 2013-14, compared with the previous financial year.
Around 28,000 fewer people claimed housing benefit, reducing the numbers from 5,053,000 to 5,025,000.
Yet in the period between 2009-10 and 2013-14 as a whole there was an increase of 478,000 in the number of claimants.
Labour’s John Healey said: ‘These figures show that David Cameron has completely failed to curb spending on housing benefit.
‘He has made life a misery for people on low incomes by cutting entitlements back to the bone, but the housing benefit bill has continued to rise.
‘The reasons for his failure are clear. Inaction on low pay and high rents have meant that wages haven’t kept pace with housing costs, and so more people are struggling to afford their rent.
‘This has meant huge growth in the number of working people now receiving housing benefit to help make ends meet.
‘But the housing benefit bill is also being driven up by ministers’ decision to cut investment and hike rents in council and housing association homes.’
