Welfare Reform Bill

I am grateful to the Minister. We are passing each other by on the word reconsideration. For me, reconsideration does not mean that you will change, but that you will reconsider the evidence. You can call it consider the evidence, you can call it reconsider the evidence, I do not mind. What I want is a guarantee, if I can put it that way, which I hope the Minister has effectively given us, that over the next couple of years we will reconsider the issue and therefore consider the evidence to make sure that the policy intent of the Government that we cap private rented sector housing allowance at the 30th percentile of rents is continued. The noble Baroness, Lady Thomas of Winchester, has already shown her concerns about what is happening in Winchester. Many of us have the experience in the south of England that already the Minister’s hopes are being disappointed. If his understanding—and my understanding is the same—is that the evidence will be looked at to see whether the policy objective that the private rented sector housing allowance can be kept pinned to the 30th percentile, I am well content. That is the assurance I am seeking, and also that the Minister will ensure we regularly review the evidence to keep it pinned to the 30th percentile rather than, as history suggests, letting it drift down and depart further from that figure with no mechanism to reconsider. Will the Minister make it clear that we are indeed saying the same thing—that the Government will keep under review and, if necessary, reconsider the evidence behind their commitment at this stage to a 30th percentile private rented sector housing allowance?