Housing benefit cuts will stop social unrest, claims Cameron | Society | The Guardian

• Patrick Wintour, political editor
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 18 November 2010 20.05 GMT
• Article history

Prime Minister David Cameron answering questions at the liaison committee Photograph: Ho/Reuters

Social unrest would have been likely if housing benefit payments had not been slashed, David Cameron said today after claims that his cuts would lead to an influx of poor families from inner cities to hard-pressed suburbs.

He challenged Margaret Hodge, the chair of the Public Accounts Committee, to join him in the streets of her home in Islington, north London, to find out whether the public supported the cuts.

The exchange was one of the few charged moments in a two-and-a-half-hour cross-examination by the chairs of Commons select committees, the first time Cameron had been questioned by the liaison committee.

In the session the prime minister also:

• Said there would be a bank holiday to celebrate the royal wedding, even if it is held at the weekend. The move was welcomed by St James's Palace.

• Disclosed his anger with the Ministry of Defence for repeatedly leaking documents.

• Urged the defence select committee to investigate why contracts were so tightly drawn that it was impossible to cancel the contract to build two aircraft carriers.

• Claimed the overseas aid budget was only publicly defensible if it was redirected to conflict prevention.

• Asserted that the chief constable of Thames Valley police, Sarah Thornton, had told him 15% cuts in her budget were achievable without damaging frontline operations.

In his exchanges on the housing benefit budget, Cameron said reform cuts were needed to prevent social unrest by taxpayers who believe it is unfair.

Hodge said he did not understand the anger in her Barking constituency in east London and warned about the impact on the extreme right. She said: "You said you support mixed communities but it's undoubtedly the case that the cap and housing benefit changes will mean that poorer people cannot afford to live in rented accommodation in Notting Hill, where you live, or Islington, where I live, or in Westminster, where we all work.

"And they will be forced out to areas like the one I represent, Barking, where there is pressure and social unrest caused by the very rapid changes in population and the lack of affordable housing.

"Is social unrest a price worth paying, and the impact that can have with the extreme right?"

Cameron replied: "Find me a street in your constituency and let's go down it together and let's ask people earning £20,000, £25,000, £30,000, whether they are happy to be paying towards people whose rent bills are £30,000, £40,000, £50,000 living in central London.

"I think that is more likely, frankly, to lead to social unrest when people find out how much money they're paying in taxes for people to live in houses they couldn't dream of living in themselves." Cameron said housing benefit had risen by 50% in the last five years. "Everyone accepts it's out of control and you've got to take some steps to deal with it," he said.

"We have been chasing ourselves round in a circuit of increased housing benefit, increased costs and all the while not building very many houses. We have had big capital allocations into housing for the last decade, but it has pushed up the price of land – anyone who owns a bit of land outside one of the towns we represent has done very well, but we seem not have built many houses."

He claimed the new homes bonus would lead to an increase in housebuilding since councils will be able to keep the extra revenue.

He also gave a rebuke about the persistent leaks from the Ministry of Defence, saying: "That department seems to have a bit of a problem with leaks which is worrying when it is the department responsible for security. Leaked letters don't help. They add to the public pressures."

He hailed the greater certainty caused by the defence review, and appeared to suggest that Downing Street had played a hand in asking the defence chiefs to sign a letter to the Times attacking the former first sea lord Lord West after he criticised navy cuts. Later the ministry said the initiative came from the defence chiefs.

He said the decisions over carriers and aircraft "was the most difficult decision at the heart of the defence review and was discussed over and over again".

On higher education, he insisted the reforms were more progressive than the previous system of tuition fees.

via guardian.co.uk