Coalition faces home truths

WITH every passing day of coalition government, and the constant attacks on Britain’s social fabric, it feels more and more like a return to the 1980s. The latest manifestation of this, welfare cuts which could see 40,000 families made homeless, is one of the most serious. Perversely, given the oft-cited need to save public money, it could also be one of the most expensive. This contradiction gives an insight into the arguments and muddled thinking going on behind the scenes in Westminster.

The leaked memo written by an aide to Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, which warns that savings from a cap on housing benefit could be wiped out by the cost of rehousing families, is alarming. The same can be said of the cuts which put at risk at least half the 56,000 affordable homes due to be built. Both measures have the potential to harm the poorest people in society and bring back uncomfortable memories of Thatcher’s Britain.

This is particularly important in Yorkshire’s towns and cities, where long queues snaked out of soup kitchens even in the recent boom years, let alone during the downturn. In the so-called Golden Triangle of Leeds, Harrogate and York, as well as in deprived areas of South and East Yorkshire, the amount of affordable housing remains critically low.

There are many reasons for this, such as the recession, a shortage of landlords willing to take tenants on housing benefits and the lack of land which can be built upon, but underlying it all was local authorities’ unwillingness to invest in cheap housing when Britain’s economy was growing.

Ordinary people are suffering and it is inevitable that homelessness will rise. The Government, having front-loaded the cuts for political gain, has a moral responsibility to do more to help those at the bottom of society and Mr Pickles, the former leader of Bradford council, must not be afraid to challenge David Cameron on the matter.

He faces a challenge, however. Local authorities are having their budgets cut and the charities which provided food and temporary shelter in the past are now seeing a fall in the value of their grants and in corporate donations. It is a bleak backdrop against which to effect social change but change is necessary and urgent. We must not repeat the mistakes of the 1980s.