Iain Duncan Smith has reportedly met up with London mayor Boris Johnson
The government may have to amend its plans for a cap on housing benefit payouts, the BBC has learned.
The proposed cap could force people out of cities where rent is higher, some MPs and charities have argued.
But Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said people living in areas that many working families could not afford should not expect to be subsidised.
A Whitehall source said the Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, was listening to MPs’ concerns.
The coalition’s plans include capping housing benefit at around £400-a-week for a four-bedroom home, and cutting the benefit for anyone on jobseeker’s allowance for more than a year by 10%.
The source told the BBC that Mr Duncan Smith was listening to Conservative MPs, especially those in and around London, who had raised issues, and had already met the capital’s mayor Boris Johnson.
‘Draconian’
BBC political correspondent Vicki Young said the source added that amendments might need to be made as the proposals pass through Parliament.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes has held talks with his party leader, Mr Clegg, over the plans.
Mr Hughes has described them as “draconian” and vowed to try and block them in Parliament.
In the Commons, Mr Clegg denied that large cities would be “cleansed” of poor people following cuts to housing benefits.
He said the suggestion, made by Labour’s Chris Bryant, was “deeply offensive to people who have witnessed ethnic cleansing”.
Other critics of the plans to cap benefits say they would penalise the long-term unemployed genuinely seeking work.
The changes were announced in the government’s Spending Review earlier this month.
It also said spending on new social housing would be cut in by 50% – but hoped to make up the shortfall by allowing housing associations to charge close to the full market rate for rent.
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