Member

I represent these families, and if you are a family living in a Victorian terraced house and finding £50 or more each week to make up the difference in your rent, there are consequences. The consequences are that people have to use the food bank, because that is where those people go to feed their families; there is the cost to the council of crisis payments; and there are the school uniform exchanges that have been set up. I chair a charity that helps families with their water bills and I know, from the applications that are made, that rent and council tax are almost always at the head of the problem. As my noble friend said, there are consequences of the policy that is being pursued. How we should deal with it is via a total rethink of the way people on low incomes are able to afford their homes, and the answer has to be for more families to have the choice not to be in the private rented sector.