Dear Sir,
Readers may remember that, shortly after I was elected as a County Councillor, I submitted a proposal to the government to help victims of the bedroom tax who found themselves in the ‘can’t-pay-can’t-move’ trap.
The Council, unanimously, agreed to submit a proposal under the Sustainable Communities Act that, for a period of two years, tenants might be exempt from the bedroom tax until suitable alternative accommodation could be found.
At the end of last month, Kris Hopkins MP, Minister for Local Government, wrote to me to inform me that our bid had failed. In a polite letter, Mr Hopkins argued that ‘to apply a two year exemption would remove much of the fairness that removal of the spare room subsidy has brought back to the system, with hard-working people again having to fund empty bedrooms and tenants less motivated to move to appropriately sized accommodation’.
He also cited the fact that in County Durham the number of tenants affected by the bedroom tax had fallen from 8167 to 6885 as proof that the government’s policy is ‘already producing the type of results that the Government is hoping to see’.
I am very disappointed by the government’s decision. Our proposal was not a full demand that the bedroom tax be abolished but a request merely for some mercy in its implementation.  Mr Hopkins’ letter indicates that it has been the government’s intention all along to use the bedroom tax as a ‘motivation’ to force people out of their homes.
I am particularly worried that we do not know where those 1282 displaced households have gone.  A few, indeed, may have gone to smaller social dwellings, and some to decent private landlords. My fear is that many vulnerable people have been forced to sleep on the couch of family or friends, or – unable to pay a bond – to move to poor quality landlords.
Councils and social landlords have implemented a suite of measures to help people and, as far as I am aware, there is no one yet in County Durham who has been evicted solely as a result of the bedroom tax.  I am also aware that some people reading this letter will approve of the bedroom tax.
But I think it is typical of this Tory-led government that it should insist on acting without mercy.  What the bedroom tax has done in County Durham, effectively, is to force more than a thousand households – too poor to find £14 a week – OUT of the social housing sector which is designed for them, into the private sector whether suitable or not (no one knows) … and then to boast about what a success their policy has been.
You can read Mr Hopkins’ letter at bit.ly/BedroomTaxMotion
Cllr John D Clare