John Mann is wrong on benefits – punishing poor families in London is not the answer

John Mann MP has a characteristically blunt article over on the Progress website in which he argues that Labour’s “London-centric” leadership needs to “get real” about the benefits cap.  His argument is that the welfare reform debate is skewed towards London, and that his constituents in Bassetlaw should not be paying for the housing benefit of those living in central London.

Of course low and middle-income families in the midlands and the north should not be paying to line the pockets of rich landlords.  But punishing poor families in London is not the answer.  John Mann’s article was thoughtless – and it missed the point.  Almost as an aside he wrote that “if someone wants to build a lot of affordable rental housing in central London then do so”.  Yet the very problem we have is that no one does.  Even with affordable housing targets there is not nearly enough affordable housing being built each year to meet demand.  Labour’s failure to give councils the freedom to build new homes during thirteen years in government only exacerbated the shortage.

I don’t know anyone who thinks that the state depositing £20 billion a year into the pockets of rich landlords is a good use of taxpayers’ money.  But it is market failure, not “benefit scroungers”, that has caused this ballooning of state spending on housing benefit.  The housing benefit bill is just one of a plethora of symptoms of housing market failure in Britain.  Why should poor families – whether they live in the north or the south – be punished for the abject failure of politicians to get a grip on housing policy?

It’s very easy to attack people on benefits.  It’s even easier to take a cheap shot when they live in central London.  But let’s consider what the coalition’s welfare reforms will mean on a practical level.  Thousands of people – not just those who are unemployed but also those in work – will be forced to move out of their homes into an unfamiliar area away from their friends, familes and support networks.  Their children will have to move to new schools – always hugely disruptive to a child’s education.  Those in work (around 20% of housing benefit claimants) will have to travel further and pay more to get there.

This is all part of the Tory plan to drive the poor out of London, and especially inner London.  Jon Cruddas described it as “an exercise in social and economic cleansing”.  Labour needs a plan to reduce the housing benefit bill, but signing up to the Tory social cleansing agenda is not the answer.

Tom Copley is a Labour London Assembly List candidate