It would seem that the Labour Party’s disingenuous use of the term bedroom tax when objecting to the changes in housing benefit affecting those in social housing bringing the criteria into line with housing benefit claimants in private rented accommodation has had the desired effect.

Archie Harris (Ashtead) seems to be under a misapprehension.

Tenants of social housing, be they council houses or housing association properties, but who do not claim housing benefit will be quite unaffected by the changes the Government is making and which the Labour Party has dubbed a bedroom tax.

Whilst he may well be right to feel aggrieved that there are affluent tenants of social housing (be they too big, too small or just the right size) who could well afford to buy or rent privately and who are therefore ‘blocking’ those properties to potential tenants on the housing waiting list, that is an entirely different argument.

There was discussion sometime back that perhaps tenants of social housing would have their tenancies reviewed every few years and, should their financial circumstances have significantly changed for the better, that they could be given notice of termination of the tenancy.

However, with the usual howls of protest off stage left (as it were) that discussion seems to have petered out.

Yvonne Bailey
Stoneleigh

 

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