Philip has said the Labour Party inflates the problems caused by the changes to the Spare Room Subsidy.
If the reduction of the Spare Room Subsidy were as problematic as Labour-led Bradford Council and Labour dominated Incommunities claim, they would be building more smaller homes for people who need them and they would be spending more funds given to council to help people struggling to pay the extra costs.
Speaking in the House of Commons debate on housing benefit Philip called on Labour Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to explain the council’s actions.
He said: “If this is causing so many problems—the Labour party in Bradford seems to think it is, too—perhaps she could explain why the Labour-dominated social housing provider has continued to build three-bedroom house after three-bedroom house despite claiming that it is not able to rent them out, and why Bradford council, which received £1.2 million in discretionary housing payments, has spent only £350,000 of it in the first six months and has not even bid for any of the extra funding the Government made available.
“If this is causing so many problems, why has the Labour council abandoned all these people?”
The Spare Room Subsidy is designed to discourage housing benefit claimants from living in social homes which are too big for them. It cuts a social tenant’s housing benefit by 14 per cent if a claimant has one extra bedroom and by a quarter for two or more extra bedrooms.
Philip also challenged MPs in the Labour-led debate calling for the Spare Room Subsidy to be scrapped.
He added: “Why should a single person on housing benefit, who perhaps does not go to work, be able to live freely in a three-bedroom property, when a couple who are hard at work and cannot afford such a large property have to pay for that property for them?"