Tag Archives: Housing

25 reasons your MP must kill David Cameron’s Bedroom Tax

No thank you: A demonstration against bedroom tax in Newcastle Upon Tyne
No thank you: A demonstration against bedroom tax in Newcastle Upon Tyne

In the House of Commons, MPs face a critical vote on the Bedroom Tax – called by Labour.

The party is using ‘Opposition Day’ to bring forward a motion on the tax that calls for an immediate end to the policy.

It also asks the House to regret its “pernicious effect on vulnerable, and in many cases disabled, people” and calls the government reverse tax cuts for the wealthiest people instead.

Affordable homes facing demolition because of bedroom tax

Housing associations say change to benefit rules means tenants cannot afford to rent three-bed maisonettes

Rachel Reeves

Shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves says 660,000 vulnerable households are being hit by the bedroom tax. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Observer

Three-bedroom homes are being condemned to demolition by housing associations because the coalition’s bedroom tax has made them too expensive for tenants to live in, the Observer can reveal.

Despite a national property shortage, providers of affordable homes are unable to find people who can meet the cost of living in a home with an extra bedroom and are, in some cases, planning demolitions. In Liverpool, one housing provider, Magenta Living, has admitted that “with changes to welfare benefits there is very little prospect of letting upper three-bedroom maisonettes in the current climate”.

Bedroom tax’ has sent 400 Norwich people into rent arrears, claim council leaders

Households are finding it very difficult to bridge the gap

Friday, August 2, 2013
7:30 AM

More than 400 people in Norwich have fallen into rent arrears since the introduction of the so-called “bedroom tax”, city council leaders say.

The controversial changes to cut housing benefit payments, dubbed the “bedroom tax” by Labour, came into force in April.