If one believe the rhetoric that the shortage of social housing can be resolved by reducing financial support for those who are unemployed or on low wages (the latter being the far greater proportion); the upshot being that those individuals affected if they are in other words help homeless people by making other people homeless THEN surely the social issue can also be addressed by, at the same time, dressing the issue of over-occupancy in privately owned houses.

My challenge to the existing government is to pass legislation whereby those under-occupying privately-owned homes pay a council tax surcharge in line with the reductions faced by housing benefit recipients. The revenues for this can be ringfenced for building new social housing.

If they cannot afford this then all they have to do is sell-up and move to somewhere smaller, or move to rented accommodation.