One of the features on Newsnight last night was a discussion on the Governments single room subsidy or bedroom tax policy. The topic was chosen by the Newsnight team, fronted by Emily Maitlis following the release of some data that had been gathered by the TUC. They had submitted Freedom of Information requests to local authorities across the UK and received responses from 114 of them. This data which they admitted was no more than a crude assessment, suggests that some 50,000 social housing tenants had fallen into arrears since the housing policy had been introduced. The Government provided a written statement to Newsnight which states “It is just wrong to suggest the early stages of the policy – as people start to adjust to the changes – represent long term trends in any way whatsoever. We are carefully monitoring the policy nationally ensuring the extra funds to support vulnerable tenants are used well as these changes are introduced” It seems that their close monitoring did not extend to asking these same councils how things were going or else they would have had some alternative figures to offer in response. Although the programme did not manage to secure a Minister to interview, Emily did manage to persuade the MP for Stratford-On-Avon, Nadhim Zahawi to appear. It was unclear why he had chosen to take up the invitation as he pointed out that when the Government had firm data they would probably send a DWP spokesperson onto the show. However he seemed happy to defend the policy on behalf of Parliament. When Emily Maitlis pressed him to explain how the tenants who were looking for smaller properties in order to bring their household budgets under control, could possibly succeed when there are insufficient homes available, the MP stated “We’re putting more money into housebuilding ……this isn’t about us making life difficult for people” However Mr Zahawi was less clear about the reasoning for the policy. He pointed out that the Housing Budget had risen from £11Bn in 2000 to £24Bn in 2013, yet he claimed that the Government does not know why it has risen to this extent. This is surely the first thing that they should have resolved, before introducing new policies which may in the long term compound the costs for all of us?

Mr Zahawi makes some clear statements on his constituency website “I believe that it is time for Change and a time for Leadership. Real leadership comes from understanding the needs and aspirations of the people we are here to serve. Politicians must stop seeing themselves as a special breed, destined to be “statesmen”. I will be someone who will put local people first, someone who will understand their problems, and represent and fight for their interests. My number one priority is to help people make the best of their lives.” This creates something of a dilemma for him, as it does for many other MPs. Some of the local people in his constituency may be facing arrears in their housing costs and need new social housing accommodation in order to release larger homes for families that are currently inadequately housed. His solution or perhaps the Governments solution is to build more houses, which is something that was widely needed before the changes to the housing subsidy took place. However other residents might prefer that no more homes are built. The MP for Stratford-On-Avon had several run-ins with the Government at the end of last year when we was resisting a local developer who wanted to build 800 homes in the Shottery area of his constituency. It seems as though Nadhim Zahawi is a bit like Bob the Builder, he is keen for lots of homes to be built, as long as they only exist in an imaginary world. Still as the sitting MP in one of the safest seats in the country (even the disgrace of a previous MP, Jack Profumo only led to the Conservative majority dropping to 9,000 votes) he can afford to speak about matters that he is not really committed to dealing with.