welfare

But he supports “the idea that we should align our housing policy with other social policies. There’s a five-year limit on cash welfare, for example. Unlimited time in public and subsidized housing doesn’t make sense.”

The insurgent right National Rally and the leftist coalition—one of whom presumably could win an election—agree on little but averting cuts to the welfare state.

That means higher taxes or welfare spending cuts or both, economists say.

Badenoch insisted she could meet this promise, with the money to come from some of the £47bn in planned savings from the welfare budget and foreign aid, announced earlier this week.

At the conference, her party has pledged to save £47bn a year from cuts to welfare, the civil service and foreign aid, if it gets back into government.