Opposition Day — Food Banks — Economic Policies — 18 Dec 2013 at 18:50

The majority of MPs voted against publishing the results of research into food banks and against freezing energy prices, against a water affordability scheme, against measures to end abuses of zero hours contract, against incentives for those paying the living wage and against abolishing the under-occupancy penalty for social housing tenants.

The motion rejected in this vote was:

• That this House
• notes that the number of people using foodbanks provided by the Trussell Trust alone has increased from 41,000 in 2010 to more than 500,000 since April this year, of whom one third were children;
• further notes that over the last three years prices have risen faster than wages;
• further notes the assessment of the Trussell Trust that the key factors in the rising resort to foodbanks are rising living costs and stagnant wages, as well as problems including delays to social security payments and the impact of the under-occupancy penalty;
• calls on the Government to publish the results of research into foodbanks commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which Ministers promised would be made public in the summer of 2013; and
• further calls on the Government to bring forward measures to reduce dependency on foodbanks, including a freeze on energy prices, a water affordability scheme, measures to end abuses of zero hours contracts, incentives to companies to pay a living wage and abolition of the under-occupancy penalty.

Debate in Parliament | Source |