Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, it is probably not appropriate to go into great depth on the theory of localism, and the noble Lord has had more experience of this than perhaps he would have liked. If there are large savings to be made by the efficient use of money across particular services, it would make sense overall for local authorities to be in a position to make those judgments. The financial incentive is there, and there is no need to go into this in detail because the noble Lord has had huge opportunities to do so. That is what the philosophy is here. We reconsider the allocation each year and will continue to do so. Noble Lords will remember that on Tuesday I agreed to write to the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, about where the money might go and the modelling of discretionary housing payments. I will write that letter and circulate it to Members of the Committee, but I have to preface that offer by saying that the analysis behind that is by its nature very difficult. We are talking about discretionary payments so there is a limit to what I can say about how those payments might be made.