Housing benefit reform ''may not work''

Friday, July 02, 2010

Housing benefit reforms announced in the emergency Budget could have major financial and social costs without making savings on public spending, according to analysis by the Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF).

The housing think tank conceded that housing benefits and the system of providing support with housing costs needed to be reformed, but said that extra spending would be "triggered" and had not been taken into account, including the long-term costs of supporting families made homeless by the new measures.

Jim Vine, head of programme (UK housing policy and practice) at BSHF, said: "The coalition government is absolutely right to want to reform the ways in which we provide support with housing costs to ensure that they are fit for the 21st century. At the heart of that must be the joint aim of a system that makes decent accommodation accessible to everyone in society and is financially sustainable in the long term."

But he added: "Unfortunately, the budget measures risk achieving neither. As well the very clear potential for harm to individuals and communities, the medium- and long-term impact of the measures could be additional public expenditure, as the state has to pick up the very expensive tab for increased homelessness and the effects of poor health and educational outcomes that we know are exacerbated by poor housing."