A regional cap on welfare payments will form part of Labour's plan to crackdown on the spiralling benefits bill, Labour Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has said.
Mr Balls yesterday signalled a "fair cap on household benefits", ditching new elected police commissioners and stripping wealthy pensioners of winter fuel payments were central to measure to restore the party's economic credibility.
If Labour were in government, he suggested it would alter the Government's politically popular £26,000-a-year limit on hand-outs, which mainly hits London.
Mr Balls said an independent body would see whether a limit should be "higher in high-cost housing areas like London, but potentially lower in other parts of the country".
Ben Bradshaw, Labour MP for Exeter, said: "It is ridiculous to have a one-size-fits-all system across the country when rents and housing costs vary so greatly and are much higher in Exeter and other parts of the Westcountry than in the North and Scotland."