This was the rumour doing the rounds in recent weeks; to the extent that the Labour leader brought it up in the House of Commons on October 27:
As Hansard recalls:
Edward Miliband: The Prime Minister is about to make 500,000 people redundant as a result of the cuts announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It is clear that his policy on housing benefit is a complete shambles. He has talked about London, but in London alone councils are saying that 82,000 people will lose their homes-they are already booking the bed-and-breakfast accommodation. How many people does he think will lose their homes as a result of that policy?
But Patrick Casey at the Full Fact blog has been suspicious of the sweeping claims, and has been doing some impressive digging of his own.
His freedom of information requests to central London boroughs are starting to trickle in – and here are the first two.
Kensington and Chelsea: “No such bookings have been made in the last three months.”
Wandsworth: “With regard to the above, no bookings have been made in Bed & Breakfast, or similar types of accommodation to provide future housing to individuals by the Council in the last three months. “
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey