Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Rushanara Ali and Rupa Huq(1 day, 13 hours ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Rushanara Ali)
The Government have increased funding for homelessness services by £233 million, bringing the total to nearly £1 billion. The 2025 spending review protected that level of investment until 2028-29, and provided £100 million of additional funding from the transformation fund.
Rushanara Ali
It is important that migrants coming to the UK should be able to maintain and accommodate themselves without recourse to public funds. We encourage councils to exhaust all options when working with people with restricted eligibility for public funds. The funding for the rough sleeping prevention and recovery grant can be used to help anyone, provided actions are within the law.
Dr Huq
London boroughs now spend £4 million a day on temporary accommodation. While costs and rough sleeping have soared, central Government subsidy has been frozen for 14 years, pushing councils to the brink of bankruptcy. Do my hon. Friends on the Front Bench agree that it is time to lift the 2011 Tory cap, so that London councils can get the support they need to make homelessness history?
Rushanara Ali
The Department for Work and Pensions keeps the level of housing benefit subsidy for temporary accommodation under review, and any future decisions will be informed by the Government’s wider housing ambitions, including tackling homelessness, and the broader fiscal context. Our fair funding review 2.0 consultation sets out our proposals to target money where it is most needed and will account for temporary accommodation costs.
Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit: Two-child Limit
Debate between Rushanara Ali and Rupa Huq(6 years, 7 months ago)
Westminster HallRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
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Rushanara Ali
I agree. I do not think that policies that punish vulnerable people are ultimately likely to succeed, which is why the Minister needs to rethink both this aspect of the universal credit policy and the policy more generally. In their attempt to simplify, the Government have found ways to cut funding. People will be worse off under universal credit.
Since implementation, the policy has already affected 400,000 children, and some 3 million children are likely to be affected. That is why I echo the points the hon. Member for Glasgow Central made, calling on the Minister to review the policy and put a stop to it, certainly until the extension of the policy next February, which will be devastating for families.
In my constituency, a large number of children and families will be affected by the policy. We have a large Muslim population and, as has been mentioned, people of other faiths are also affected. I call on the Minister to take into account the unequal impact the policy will have and the fact that the equality impact assessment is flawed.
Rushanara Ali
I will have to conclude, to give others the opportunity to speak. The equality impact assessment does not recognise the negative consequences for certain groups. More than 100 MPs wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, copying in the then Work and Pensions Secretary and the Chancellor, and we have still not had a response, which is really unfortunate. I encourage the Minister to go back to his Secretary of State and ensure that she responds to it and seriously rethinks the policy so that children in our country are protected.