Teenage parents to be put in 'supervised homes'

Teenage parents on benefits will be forced to live in "supervised homes" instead of being given council houses, Gordon Brown declared today in a bid to cut the number of pregnancies.

The Prime Minister said it was not right that a 16-year-old girl could "get pregnant, be given the keys to a council flat and be left on her own".

Instead, he told the Labour Party's annual conference in Brighton, groups of young mothers and fathers would be taught responsibility and how to raise their children "properly".

"It's time to address a problem that for too long has gone unspoken: the number of children having children," he declared.

"For it cannot be right for a girl of 16 to get pregnant, be given the keys to a council flat and be left on her own.

"From now on all 16- and 17-year-old parents who get support from the taxpayer will be placed in a network of supervised homes.

"These shared homes will offer not just a roof over their heads, but a new start in life where they learn responsibility and how to raise their children properly.

"That's better for them, better for their babies and better for us all in the long run."

He told delegates: "We won't ever shy away from taking difficult decisions on tough social questions."