I AM saddened to think how the recent Budget announcements are going to affect our beautiful, diverse city.

The last government’s welfare reforms have already driven Oxford City Council to send homeless families far from friends and family – to Coventry, Birmingham and further afield.

Most people on housing benefit can no longer afford to live here in privately rented accommodation.

The latest measures (lowering of the benefit cap and working family tax credits, and introduction of market rents for social housing tenants earning more than £30,000 per household, among others) will mean that a huge number of families, even if they are working but on low incomes, won’t be able to afford social housing here either.

I and my family have worked hard for our house in south Oxford. But most of the council and housing association tenants I meet have worked hard for many years too, while others rely on benefits because they are too ill to work full-time.

I used to believe that if my family fell on hard times, there would be a safety net to help us. Now I fear that we would lose our home, have to uproot our children from school and friends, and move somewhere cheap enough for housing benefit to cover the rent. Moreover, the benefits we’d be entitled to would not cover decent food, heating and clothing.

If these policies are allowed to run their course, Oxford will become a bland reserve for the very wealthy. Most social housing will have been purchased at a huge discount and then sold on for profit, and people on benefits or low incomes will have been banished to cheaper areas far away.

When will people recognise the impact of these cruel, mad policies and demand that the Government rein in its endless punishment of the poor?

BECKY WILLIS
Sunningwell Road, Oxford