Danny Alexander writes in today’s Scotsman about the benefit reduction which has become colloquially known as the Bedroom Tax.
He argues that the Coalition had to take action after Labour mismanagement and failure to build houses:
However, they may not know that Labour also left a legacy whereby hundreds of thousands of families in Scotland are waiting for a house that is big enough for their family to live in. The government has a responsibility to make sure that we change housing benefit rules in a careful, sensitive and managed way. But we also have a responsibility to those families.
Housing benefit is there, rightly, to help people pay their rent, whether they are unemployed, on a low income, or sick. But the amount of help you receive should not depend on who owns your house; it should be based on need. If you live in private rented accommodation and receive housing benefit, these rules already apply – and have done for nearly 20 years.
He outlined what he saw as the Liberal Democrat perspective on welfare reform and contrasted it to Labour’s record:
Labour had the opportunity and the money during its 13 years in government to tackle this problem by building more houses. It is to Labour’s shame that it failed. Instead, it left us with an unaffordable welfare system that failed to incentivise work, which is the best route out of poverty. The great Liberal reformer William Beveridge declared that “benefit in return for contributions, rather than free allowances from the state, is what the people of Britain desire”. But under the last Labour government, his principles were forgotten. What underpins the Liberal Democrats’ vision of the welfare state is a balance between the role of the state and the role of the citizen.
It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that support is available for those whose need it, but every person who can must also take responsibility by working hard. The Universal Credit will ensure that, for the first time, everyone on benefits can be sure that they will be better off in work. The big income tax cuts for working people delivered by the Lib Dems in government are ensuring that people on low incomes are keeping more of the money they earn than they ever did under Labour.
He went on to talk about what the Coalition Government is doing to improve the supply of affordable housing. He didn’t take the opportunity to have a go at the SNP Government, though, for its cuts to the social housing budget in Scotland.
The core problem in the Highlands, where my constituency is, and elsewhere is the need for more investment in affordable housing. During Labour’s time in office, the number of affordable homes available across the UK fell by 650,000. We have, for the first time, made available government guarantees for housing associations to help them build more homes more cheaply. This is also available to housing associations in Scotland. Our Help to Buy scheme will help more people on lower incomes to own their own home, and stimulate the construction of new homes across the UK.
You can read Danny’s whole article here.
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