Member

That brings me to the point that I think the Government are keen to blur. The wonderful title of this take-note Motion makes my point: freezing local housing allowance is not a technical adjustment and it is neither neutral nor passive. It is a deliberate policy choice taken in the full knowledge of what will follow. The Government know that rents will continue to rise, although I am sure the Minister will tell me that there has started to be a slow up—I try to follow the trends. They know that freezing LHA widens the gap and, because we have already lived through it, that this leads to arrears, evictions, homelessness and—this is one of my key points—higher costs elsewhere in the system. Calling it a freeze makes it sound almost accidental, but it is not. It is an active decision to withhold support while costs rise, knowing exactly who will bear the consequences. This was not the intention of the original policy, which we would support.