Agenda item

9.35pm – Councillor Peter Graham moved, seconded by Councillor Andrew Johnson, the special motion standing in their names:

“This Council:

(1)          Endorses the statement that “Housing Benefit will be reformed to ensure that we do not subsidise people to live in the private sector on rents that other ordinary working families could not afford”: (A Future Fair For All: The Labour Party Manifesto 2010).

(2)           Notes:

·                that new rules will be implemented from April 2011 for those who receive Housing Benefit in the form of Local Housing Allowance;

·                that social housing tenants, and anyone who started receiving payments for a property prior to April 2008, will not be affected by the new Local Housing Allowance rules, and;

·                the wider changes to the benefits system from 2013 onwards;

(3)           Resolves:

·                to assist households whose rent becomes unaffordable to negotiate lower rents with their landlords and;

·                when renegotiation of rents is not feasible, to make discretionary payments to those with special circumstances and;

·                to assist other households in finding affordable properties as near as possible to the tenants’ preferred location.”

Speeches on the special motion were made by Councillors Peter Graham and Andrew Johnson (for the Administration).

Under Standing Order 15(e) (vi), Councillor Lisa Homan, seconded by Councillor Caroline Needham, moved an amendment to the motion as follows:

Delete all after "This Council" and replace with:

“regrets the simplistic and inaccurate caricature the Tory led government is peddling to sell its housing benefits and LHA cuts and instead recognise the assessment of Shelter, the leading independent housing and homeless charity, that “The vast majority of HB claimants are either pensioners, those with disabilities, people on low incomes, and only one in eight people who receive HB is unemployed”.

The Council is concerned about the possibility of unprecedented levels of homelessness these cuts will cause and notes that the Conservative Administration claims only 1,300 Hammersmith and Fulham households will be affected in some way but this contradicts with the Department of Work and Pensions assessment that 2,670 Hammersmith and Fulham household will be affected by these cuts.  The Council urges the Conservative Administrative to take an objective approach to managing this issue and not to downplay the numbers of people affected.

This Council resolves to:

• To assist households whose rent becomes unaffordable to negotiate lower rents with their landlord
• Use the governments discretionary payment funding to help those families affected
• Take the Conservative led government’s advice that any arrears because of a loss of HB/LHA should be treated as beyond the tenant’s control and that those households facing the loss of their home should be treated as “unintentionally homeless”.

Speeches on the amendment were made by Councillors Lisa Homan, Caroline Needham, P J Murphy and Andrew Jones (for the Opposition) and Councillors Lucy Ivimy, Andrew Johnson and Mark Loveday (for the Administration) before it was put to the vote:

FOR                            11

AGAINST                   27

ABSTENTIONS         0

The motion was declared LOST.

Speeches on the substantive motion were then made by Councillor Marcus Ginn  and Mark Loveday (for the Administration).

Councillor Peter Graham (for the Administration) made a speech winding up the debate before the substantive motion was put to the vote:

FOR                            27

AGAINST                   11

ABSTENTIONS         0

The motion was declared CARRIED.

10.24 pm – RESOLVED:

That the Council:

(1)               Endorses the statement that “Housing Benefit will be reformed to ensure that we do not subsidise people to live in the private sector on rents that other ordinary working families could not afford”: (A Future Fair For All: The Labour Party Manifesto 2010).

(2)               Notes:

·                that new rules will be implemented from April 2011 for those who receive Housing Benefit in the form of Local Housing Allowance;

·                that social housing tenants, and anyone who started receiving payments for a property prior to April 2008, will not be affected by the new Local Housing Allowance rules, and;

·                the wider changes to the benefits system from 2013 onwards;

(3)               Agrees:

·                to assist households whose rent becomes unaffordable to negotiate lower rents with their landlords and;

·                when renegotiation of rents is not feasible, to make discretionary payments to those with special circumstances and;

·                to assist other households in finding affordable properties as near as possible to the tenants’ preferred location.