Is the phrase "Social Cleansing" harmful to those opposed to housing benefit changes?

Thursday's "Question Time" was a dispiriting programme. The politicians were uninspiring and the liveliest performers were notable for their presentation rather than for what they had to say. Simon Schama had the air of a man who'd broken the record for coffee consumption while the hedge fund manager, Hugh Hendry has a career ahead of him in panto.

In the early stages of the programme Ed Davey was asked about Boris Johnson's comments on Kosovo style social cleansing of London. He said The London Mayor should apologise and also criticised fellow panellist Chris Bryant for making similar comments in The Commons.Talk of cleansing in a social or ethnic context is always going to be provocative because of reminders of terrible ethnic cleansing enforced by guns and bombs in The Balkans less than twenty years ago.
So the question is, "Will housing benefit changes lead to social cleansing?". The changes will bring in £65 million a year, but, according to Channel 4's Fact Check, it is associated housing benefit changes which cause the main problem. The way that Housing Benefit is calculated will be changed and its value will also be reduced in line with other benefits because it will be linked to CPI. Housing Benefit changes will bring in a total of £600million and London will be the city most affected by the changes. 139 households receive more than £50,000 a year - all in London. 80% of the households that receive more than £20,000 a year are in the capital.

My main concern is that we may see a rise in the price of mid price rental properties because of a shortage of housing in London linked to the relatively large number of people being forced to move to less expensive properties. It is also counter productive to have parts of London with very few poorer people. A social mix is desirable for social and economic reasons. That said, I don't believe that we will see "Social Cleansing". Most people will do their best to stay where they are and , in the short term, they will be successful in doing so. This may well lead to a problem with debt for some of the poorest people in the country.

The word "Cleansing" in this context has been counter productive for those fighting the changes. People know about "ethnic cleansing" and don't see benefit changes in the same way. A more effective way of gaining public support in London would have been to highlight the impact on the housing market at mid range and to point out that clamping down on the number of people receiving £50,000 a year in housing benefit would bring in less than 6 per cent of the amount handed out by RBS in bonuses this year.