Cuts ‘will force families away’ from Camden

Published: 19 August, 2010
by RICHARD OSLEY

FAMILIES face being forced out of Camden due to government cuts in housing benefit, the Town Hall warned last night (Wednesday).

Labour councillors said the first sign of the impact caused by strict new caps on benefit payments would be the end of council placements for tenants in private rented homes in the south of the borough where market rents are highest.

But they warned that the changes forced on them would not stop there, and that affordable placements in private rented blocks elsewhere in the borough would be hard to secure.

Some families with long-established roots and connections in the area could be left with no other option but to look elsewhere, they warned.

New council research shows more than 1,700 of Camden’s most disadvantaged residents face at least a £30 a week cut to their income when the benefit reductions hit. More than 800 of those worst affected are understood to have children.

Housing campaigners are already plotting a campaign involving MPs and councillors to try and convince the government to change its mind. Defend Council Housing lobbyists have pledged to take the issue to political parties’ conferences next month.

Town Hall officials believe the use of private rented accommodation has helped them cut homelessness by around 85 per cent.

Labour finance spoke­sman Councillor Theo Blackwell said the government had “got its sums wrong” and predicted the losers would be people forced to leave the areas their families have always called home.

He added: “A one-size-fits-all approach will not work in London or in Camden. We need to take a fighting case to the coalition government.”