A perfect storm that will simply eviscerate British communities

By Imran Ahmed

Yesterday Ed Miliband took it to the Prime Minister over changes to housing benefit. Simon Hughes, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats and spokesman for the Lib Dems’ horrified activist base and rapidly diminishing electoral base, has already put the boot in by saying the plans were “harsh and draconian“. Ed’s forensic cross-examination of the Prime Minister was followed by an impassioned plea by Liberal Democrat MP, Bob Russell, for Cameron to reconsider his plans – to no avail of course.

On Tuesday, Chris Bryant incurred the wrath of the Prime Minister’s supine Deputy after referring to sociological cleansing of the inner cities – over 200,000 people are estimated to be at risk – with Mr Clegg angrily declaiming, that “to refer to ‘cleansing’ will be deeply offensive to people who have witnessed ethnic cleansing in other parts of the world.” It was left to Boris Johnson to back up Mr Bryant and, indeed, go one step further, by calling the plans “Kosovo-style cleansing“.

The Traitor-in-Chief was both wrong-headed in spirit and in fact. In fact, less than a year ago he said about the decision to eliminate excess payments to claimants where their rent is lower than the rate of the allowance:

“How is it possible that in the middle of a recession, with unemployment now at two and a half million and rising, this government, a Labour government, wants to change the local housing allowance rules to take £15 a week from some of the poorest families in Britain?”

I agree with Nick. The dole is a paltry amount. It leaves people well below the government’s own poverty limits. Having to redistribute that money to fill a gap in rent will force people to make horrendous decisions. As anyone that is currently looking for a job will tell you, there aren’t many out there. In the midst of an economic nightmare, caused by staggering mendacity and stupidity in greedy financial services institutions, this will cause untold hardship. People will be left homeless. People will go hungry. Meanwhile, of course, directors of the top 100 companies in Britain have seen their pay soar 55%. It’s not fair, no matter how many times Cameron and Clegg say so.

Going back to Bryant, what he says is absolutely critical. I’ve often said to people who ask me what ‘Britishness’ is, that mixed communities are an absolute hallmark of Britain. When I moved back home last year after a few years working overseas I had two criteria for where I lived. First, there must be a great local pub, and that there must be a good old-fashioned mixed community in my immediate area. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Mixed Income Communities Programme did a good job of explaining why I might find that attractive:

“Mixed income communities studied were overwhelmingly judged successful; they were not characterised by the problems often linked with exclusively low-income areas. The schemes had generally met the expectations of developers, residents and housing managers and had become pleasant places to live, learn and work.”

“Mixed tenure and mixed income were “non-issues” to residents – they saw their neighbours as “ordinary people”. Whilst residents may not have developed personal friendships across tenures, they described their relationships as “civil” and “polite”. There was no specific evidence of role-model effects or increased social capital.”

The decision to cap housing benefit comes at the same time as a rapid slowdown in the building of new housing which threatens to stall urban development, see rents skyrocket further and leave thousands homeless, while forcing the construction industry (which has been a prime component of recent growth) to shed over a hundred thousand jobs. What a mess.

Together they are creating a perfect storm that will simply eviscerate British communities, rip families apart and create untold misery. At PMQ’s Ed quipped “no wonder he’s back on the fags” as Mr Clegg squirmed. No wonder indeed.