Welfare reform minister Lord Freud has been accused of "fiddling government figures" in order to suggest that private landlords are largely behind an increase in the cost of housing benefit.
The British Property Federation has suggested that this is not the case and that other factors, such as government plans for social housing and an increasing number of unemployed people, have led to the increase.
Ian Fletcher, director of policy at the British Property Federation, suggested that while it supports benefit reform, it does not believe statistics should be manipulated.
Instead, property incentives should be in place to ensure that people can be kept in homes, he suggested.
"Rather than distorting the findings of the report and misusing statistics the Department [for Work and Pensions] should be focusing its energies on how it can work with the sector to keep people in their homes," Mr Fletcher said.
Late last month, the federation welcomed the latest findings from the Office of National Statistics which revealed growth in the construction sector.
Social Housing News
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