An open letter to Cllr Mike Hayward, Leader of the Labour
Group on Swale Borough Council.
Dear Mike
The last Labour Government
reduced housing benefit for tenants in the private housing sector who rented
homes with more bedrooms than they needed, a measure that I note you now refer
to as the “bedroom tax”.
I supported the rationale behind
this policy, which is to encourage tenants with too many bedrooms to find
smaller accommodation, thus freeing up housing stock for families in need of a
larger home.
However, I was concerned about
the practicalities of implementing the policy, for instance in areas in which a
smaller house was not available for rent, which is why I voted against the
Coalition Government when it decided to extend the Labour policy to the social
housing sector.
I was particularly concerned for
disabled people who need an additional bedroom for occasional carers and those
who have had their home adapted for their special needs and for whom moving to
a different, smaller home would be difficult and impracticable.
The Coalition sought to mitigate
these concerns by providing local authorities with addition funds to allow them
to offer discretionary help to those who faced the greatest hardship, something
I do not recall the last Government doing when it introduced its so called
“bedroom tax” for private tenants.
I was interested to read in this
week’s local paper that the Labour Party has now pledged to scrap the “bedroom
tax” should it form the next government. I would be very grateful if you would
confirm that this will include both the social and private rented
sector.
If it is your intention to scrap
the “bedroom tax” for those renting in the private sector, could you explain
why Labour introduced this measure in the first place?
If it is your intention scrap the
policy only for those renting social housing, please could you explain to the
large number of people living in private rented accommodation in Sittingbourne
and Sheppey why you propose to perpetuate the unfairness put in place when
Labour first introduced its “bedroom tax”?
Yours sincerely
Gordon
GORDON HENDERSON MP
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