Croydon Council is considering sending homeless families to live in emergency bed and breakfast accommodation in Manchester and Walsall, after a surge in homeless acceptances which they attribute to benefit cuts and the effects of the financial crisis. Jenny Jones will ask the Mayor to reconsider his support for the benefit cuts in light of this, and to urgently lobby for a higher benefit cap for London to account for higher rents and other living costs.
"I have repeatedly put evidence to the Mayor that these benefit cuts will increase homelessness, that we won’t have enough low cost homes in the capital after the cuts, and that local services like GPs and schools in cheaper areas are already oversubscribed. But he has still supported the cuts all the way, only pushing for very minor concessions.
"The Mayor simply has to face up to the reality that rents in London are twice the national average, and that places like Croydon don’t have enough homes below the cap for all our low income households."
