Sun 22 Dec 2019 13.14 EST
Last modified on Sun 22 Dec 2019 13.20 EST
One Conservative party manifesto commitment that did not make it into the text of the Queen’s speech (Report, 20 December) but which was mentioned in the background briefing notes is the government’s pledge to publish a national strategy for disabled people in 2020. Many groups have called for this, and I am sure it will be welcomed. The strategy, we are told, will include housing, education and transport, with the benefits system being addressed in a green paper. Measures will “ensure disabled people can lead a life of opportunity and fulfilment”.
If the government wants to support disabled people in all aspects and phases of their lives, this strategy must do three key things. First, it must be developed across all government departments. For example, until the Department for Work and Pensions radically improves the personal independence payment system, it will be impossible to improve the quality of life of many disabled people.
Second, the government must implement promises made previously, such as the consultation on accessible housing, which had been announced to start in the autumn. Without access to something as fundamental as housing, the aims of the strategy are unlikely to be met.
Third, and perhaps most important of all, disabled people must be fully involved and represented at all stages. If we are not, it will be impossible for the government fully to understand those issues that matter the most.
Celia Thomas
Lib Dem spokesperson on disability
• Euphoria over the promised abolition of section 21 no-fault evictions through a renters’ reform bill in the Queen’s speech must tempered with despair that misery as usual will continue for renters. Housing and council tax benefits remain cut while rents and council tax rise, taking an ever larger proportion of low incomes, in both work and unemployment, needed for food, fuel and other necessities.
Funding the housing demand of first-time buyers stokes the fires of the housing emergency by increasing house prices and rents. Under the present regime the number of homeless tenants increases faster than the number of truly affordable tenancies built. UK governments allow the wealthy, from both here and abroad, to buy land for profit. They leave it empty as the number of homeless British citizens keeps rising. Renters will continue to be deprived of UK land by speculators with all the ferocity of the enclosures and the Highland clearances.
Rev Paul Nicolson
Taxpayers Against Poverty
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