This in from Andrew Turner’s office yesterday. Ed
The Island’s MP, Andrew Turner has revealed that it takes the income tax paid by ten people earning the average wage on the Isle of Wight to pay a £25,000 housing benefit bill for a single family.
Spending on Housing Benefit has almost doubled over the last ten years and now costs taxpayers £20 billion annually.
Mr Turner says it is unfair that working people on the Isle of Wight are paying the bills for Housing Benefit claimants to live in houses they themselves could never afford.
Vast majority of claimants in London
The vast majority of people claiming in excess of the coalition Government’s new proposed cap of £20,000 (17,400 out of 21,000) live in Central London. Mr Turner says that the new limit of £400 per week is still generous and the issue should have been addressed a long time ago.
Speaking ahead of a House of Commons debate on the changes the MP said, “The vast majority of Islanders who have raised this issue with me support these proposals and so do I. The newspapers have found examples of families claiming up to, or even more than £100,000 in Local Housing Allowance (the housing benefit given to social tenants in private rented accommodation).
“In truth there are a relatively small number of those cases – but those stories, whilst shocking, mask another problem. From November 2008 until February 2010 rent for private tenants fell by five per cent, but rose by three per cent for those on housing benefit. It is London landlords not the poor that are benefitting from over-generous housing benefit payments – that must be addressed and it is long overdue.
“High rents funded by the taxpayer also trap people in poverty – all the welfare reforms being brought in are designed to make work pay. Someone paying £400 per week rent would need to earn over £80,000 pa if they were not on benefits. We must make sure that all disincentives to work are removed. The housing benefit cap of £400 per week does not affect families in social housing in London or 9 out of 10 people in private rented housing – only those in expensive properties in more exclusive areas.
“Working people in London rent cheaper properties or move to neighbouring boroughs if they can’t afford to rent expensive properties in prime locations – we need to make sure that is something that non-working people must also consider. In my view Isle of Wight taxpayers shouldn’t be contributing towards payments of more than £400 a week to London landlords.”
Image: Woodley Wonder Works under CC BY 2.0
