The recent storm over Newham LBC's 'social cleansing' as a result of housing benefit caps highlights the Government's ongoing battle to reduce the welfare budget. Michael Burton reports on a conference last week, in which works and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, and troubled families chief, Louise Casey, outlined their respective programmes.

Last week's revelation that Newham LBC had asked a housing association in Staffordshire whether it might be prepared to take on some of the London borough's benefit-dependent families caused a storm, recreating accusations of 'social cleansing'.