LONDON MAYOR Boris Johnson was forced to climb down yesterday after declaring he would not accept a “Kosovan-style social cleansing” of people who will be unable to pay rents under cuts to be enforced next year by the Conservative/Liberal Democrats coalition as it seeks to make savings on the £20 billion paid out every year on housing benefit.
From next April, housing benefit, paid to those living on less than £16,000 a year whether working or unemployed, will be limited to £250 per week for a one-bedroom flat and £400 a week for a four-bedroom property. This is creating fears people living in high-price areas such as London could be forced to move to outlying districts or even face homelessness.
Speaking on local radio yesterday morning, Mr Johnson said: “The last thing we want to have in our city is a situation such as Paris where the less well-off are pushed out to the suburbs”, before adding, “What we will not see and we will not accept is any kind of Kosovo-style social cleansing of London.”
The emotive nature of the comments from Mr Johnson, a conservative who faces re-election in 2012, provoked fury. “The prime minister doesn’t agree with what Boris Johnson has said, or, indeed, the way he said it,” said a spokesman for number 10.
Faced with Conservative anger, Mr Johnson sought to retract, saying he did “not agree with the wild accusations from defenders of the current system that reform will lead to social cleansing”.
A paper by London City Hall warned 7,000 families in city centre districts, including 20,000 children, will be unable to pay local authority or private rents when the cuts come into force, along with 2,000 single people, while the homeless could double.
London’s councils put their estimate at 82,000 households. The National Housing Federation put it higher still, at 114,000.