§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will give the statistical basis on which Cardiff was placed in a list of declining industrial towns and cities in the recent housing benefit fraud review. [12571]
§ Mr. Andrew MitchellThe classification of local authorities used in the report of the housing benefit review was defined in terms of a comprehensive set of 37 social and economic variables drawn from the 1991 census to make the places in each of six types similar to each other while making each type clearly distinct from the others. Unfortunately, the description of the group including Cardiff was so abbreviated as to be inappropriate and misleading. The report has been amended to describe that group as "Ex-mining and industrial towns and other cities" and an apology has been sent to Cardiff and the other places affected.