"Latest Tory-Lib Dem cuts attack will affect far more households in Brighton and Hove than any other part of South East," says Caroline.

Brighton Pavilion's Green MP has warned that government cuts in housing benefit will affect Brighton and Hove more seriously than anywhere else in the South East (1, 2) - and will leave more Brighton and Hove residents struggling to pay the rent, more falling into serious debt and ultimately more becoming homeless.

The Green Party leader was commenting on a new report by homelessness charity Crisis (3).

Caroline said:"The cuts in housing benefit will affect well over 12,000 households in Brighton and Hove - more than 14 times the number of affected households in West Oxfordshire, which is within David Cameron's own constituency (4).

"People in one-bed properties in Brighton and Hove are looking at paying an extra £728 a year - thanks to a higher cut in housing benefit than anywhere else in the South East for that type of property (5, 6)."

Housing benefit cut is equivalent to big increase in income tax for poorer people

Caroline continued:"As an example, consider someone earning £16,000 (after tax-free allowance) and receiving housing benefit. If they lose £728 a year in housing benefit, that would be the equivalent of paying an income tax rise of over 4.5 per cent (7).

"These particular Tory-Lib Dem cuts will leave more people struggling to pay the rent, more people falling into serious debt and ultimately more people becoming homeless.

"This is very unfair, coming at a time when many of these people are facing economic uncertainty or even redundancy.

"Once again we see the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition's cuts hitting the poorer people in society. The government could avoid these cuts by properly tackling tax avoidance and tax evasion perpetrated by some of the wealthiest, which could raise billions of pounds a year (8)."

Notes

For more information please contact the Brighton and Hove Green Party office on 01273 766 670.

1. NB this is the South East region, therefore not including London. In terms of numbers affected, this will be far more in Brighton and Hove than anywhere else in the South East. According to the new report (3), the numbers of households affected by cuts to houses of all sizes in the various parts of the South East are as follows:

* 12,550 households in Brighton and Hove
* 3,260 in Reading
* 2,030 households in Oxford
* 1,490 households in Wycombe
* 930 households in Woking
* 870 households in Wokingham
* 860 households in West Oxfordshire
* 810 households in South Oxfordshire
* 440 households in Chiltern

2. In terms of the average loss of housing benefit for those people living in one-bed properties specifically, this will be greatest in Brighton and Hove, at £728, than anywhere else in the South East.

3. The report by Crisis can be found at http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/publications/1008HBCuts%20formatted.doc

Crisis comments, "The Government announced cuts of £1.8bn to housing benefit in its emergency Budget soon after coming to power. According to an impact assessment by the Department of Work and Pensions, every one of the 123,000 households in the region reliant on Local Housing Allowance (LHA)-the form of housing benefit paid to tenants in the Private Rented Sector-will be affected. On average, claimants in the South East will see their LHA cut by £12 per week, or £624 per year."

4. Affected households include 12,550 households in Brighton and Hove and 860 households in West Oxfordshire; 860 goes into 12,550 14.593 times.

5. The calculation of housing benefit is complicated. The level of benefit you can claim is linked to local rents in the area and is calculated at the median rent level. The government is moving the basis of calculation of entitlement from the 50th to the 30th percentile (of rental costs of properties in a given area). The reason for the relatively high figure in Brighton and Hove is that there's a bigger gap between the 30th and 50th percentiles. This is because there's an especially large private rented sector in Brighton and Hove, so rent levels are more spread out, hence the bigger gap, hence the higher average cut in benefit.

6. This and all other raw figures here are derived from the aforementioned report by Crisis, citing two government sources:

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/local-authority-staff/housing-benefit/claims-processing/local-housing-allowance/impact-of-changes.shtml.

and http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/impacts-of-hb-proposals.pdf.

7. £728 as a percentage of £16,000 = 4.55%. Of course, taking tax-free allowance into account, the real percentage would work out much higher.

8. See Cuts: The Callous Con Trick by Caroline Lucas et al, http://www.financeforthefuture.com/TaxBriefing.pdf. See also Green Party news release of 19 June 2010, "Cuts ‘destructive and unnecessary' says Green Party leader", at http://www.greenparty.org.uk/News/2010-06-19-callous-cuts-report.html.