Local Government Finance Bill

I have known my hon. Friend for many years, and I am used to his brainwaves, which normally apply to education. Of course, he is perfectly right. The people who will be affected already face higher food and energy bills. Sadly, however hard they work, they are unlikely to get any of the fancy bonuses that will be pouring into the coffers of bankers and everybody else over the next few weeks and months. Quite simply, the proposals merely transfer one of the national costs of rising unemployment to councils and local taxpayers, creating a serious risk that every resident will see further service cuts beyond those already threatened. In my constituency of Stockton North, the theoretical 10% reduction in council tax benefit will equate to around £1.2 million; within the Stockton borough, the figure is £1.7 million. In reality, as pensioners are excluded from the change, those affected are likely to suffer a 20%, rather than a 10%, reduction. I must add that Stockton-on-Tees borough council's revenue budget, along with that of every other council across the country, already faces tremendous reductions. In Stockton, there is to be a reduction of £26.5 million. Where will it find the extra money to bolster this budget, when it will need to pay out to an increasing number of people who will have to claim council tax benefit? The cuts that the council is suffering are in addition to cuts of £12.3 million to specific grants; the early intervention grant was cut by £3 million, and of course there was the future jobs fund, which the Government do not appreciate. Frankly, the Government are giving to those on low incomes with one hand, and taking away with the other. There is no regard at all for the implications for people's standard of living, and people are living on the edge. I know; I see these people at my surgeries. They do not have that extra £2, £3, £4, £5 or £6 a week to spend on council tax. They need to spend that money on feeding their children. The money to pay extra council tax is not there. The amendments would save the Government from themselves. They would help the Government to fulfil their commitment to joined-up government—that is if the Secretaries of State bother to talk to each other. The amendments would also ensure that the huge hit to the working poor did not happen. If the Government accept the amendments, they will be recognising the real need, and will have the opportunity to do something about it. Without the amendments, many more people will be plunged into poverty, undoing much of the good work that the Labour party did in government to improve the living standards of the poorest in society. The Government may well find that they have not made work pay; instead, some families will find themselves better off back on benefits and out of work. Where is the pride in that? Furthermore, the Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts that as a result of the changes in council tax benefit, individual councils could reduce the benefits to such an extent that it would encourage low-income people to move out of the area. The think-tank also points out that the changes would create a complex, two-tier benefit system, with both local and central Government setting policy. That runs counter to the idea of the streamlined universal credit to which my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington North (Helen Jones) referred, which is being introduced by the Work and Pensions Secretary. The incentive that changes to council tax benefit will give local authorities to encourage low-income people to move elsewhere is totally undesirable and unacceptable, yet the Government seem intent on banishing the poorest in our society from our towns and cities. Let me give one example of the chaos that could result from the council tax changes and other changes: it is estimated that 20,000 families could move out of central London to find accommodation elsewhere. What an effect that could have on jobs, children and services. If several thousand children move out of central London, inner-city schools may no longer be viable, and other areas may not have the capacity to take them in. We know that the plans of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions will have that effect, but surely the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government does not need to help him. Removing council tax benefit from vulnerable people is not the answer. In-work poverty is getting worse as wages are frozen and the cost of living rises sharply. Around 61% of children living in poverty live in working households with parents who are working hard to feed them, clothe them and send them to school. The figure in 2005-06 was 50%, so more people are now working to support their families, but they are doing so on paltry incomes. Surely no one in this Committee believes that that number should go any higher. That is why the Government must think again about these damaging changes to council tax benefit and adopt the amendments that will protect, if no one else, the working poor.