Tag Archives: bedroom tax

NewsHound

LibLink… Danny Alexander: Coalition tackling housing crisis

By NewsHound | Wed 17th April 2013 - 3:27 pm

Danny Alexander writes in today’s Scotsman about the benefit reduction which has become colloquially known as the Bedroom Tax.

He argues that the Coalition had to take action after Labour mismanagement and failure to build houses:

However, they may not know that Labour also left a legacy whereby hundreds of thousands of families in Scotland are waiting for a house that is big enough for their family to live in. The government has a responsibility to make sure that we change housing benefit rules in a careful, sensitive and managed way. But we also have a responsibility to those families.

Housing benefit is

…

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged and | 15 Comments
Stephen Tall

Margaret Thatcher, the 1983 election and the ‘bedroom tax’

By Stephen Tall | Tue 2nd April 2013 - 8:35 pm

margaret-thatcherLike Caron, I spent more than a healthy amount of my Bank Holiday Monday watching BBC Parliament’s re-run of the 1983 general election.

It’s not an election I remember (I was 6). But the symmetry of yesterday’s hyperbolic Guardian (‘The day Britain changed’) front page and the televised reminder of Margaret Thatcher’s first landslide seemed calculated to confirm the left’s view that 1st April 2013 marked the ultimate victory of those on the right who wanted (and still want) to destruct the welfare state.

What Mrs T, Geoffrey Howe …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 29 Comments
The Voice

LibLink: Danny Alexander – Bedroom blockers and tax dodgers will pay

By The Voice | Sun 31st March 2013 - 4:45 pm

Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander has published a robust defence of the Coalition’s welfare reforms in The Sun on Sunday. Here’s how it starts:

Last week a young woman came to talk to me about her housing situation. Her frustration was obvious. She was working hard in a low-paid job and was stuck in an overcrowded home with a young family and desperately needed to move to a bigger home. She couldn’t understand why she had to wait so long to get a home that was the right size for her and her family. It’s a story

…

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , , , and | 50 Comments
John Coburn

Opinion: The ‘Bedroom Tax’ does not pass the Fairer Society test

By John Coburn | Tue 19th March 2013 - 4:32 pm

The leadership’s positioning over secret courts has angered many of the party faithful over the past week, but for me the major disappointment  has been our uncritical support of the Tory inspired ‘spare bedroom subsidy’ policy or how I think more accurately describes it – the ‘bedroom tax’.  Our leader Nick Clegg used the provocative ‘spare bedroom subsidy’ term in a Q&A session at last week’s Spring Conference, and it has been repeated by senior Lib Dems including Mike German on Newsnight in the days following.

The policy, which is part of the government’s welfare reform package, will cut the amount …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 48 Comments
Caron Lindsay

“Bedroom Tax” – should social landlords be doing more to encourage swaps?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 20th February 2013 - 9:36 am

The “bedroom tax” which is not actually a tax, but a cut in Housing Benefit if a tenant in social housing has more bedrooms than they are deemed to need, has caused much anxiety and disquiet in recent weeks. Its introduction in April means that tenants in social housing will need to find around £60 a month on already hard-pressed budgets. If they are unable to pay the extra, then they face eviction. Even ifsocial landlords decide not to evict and merely to pursue rent arrears, the stress of that debt and its impact on a family’s ability to keep …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 69 Comments



Recent Comments

  • User AvatarRichard S 21st May - 11:26pm
    @jenny barnes - So form a community and live in it then. Or is what you really want the ability to compel others to be...
  • User AvatarRichard S 21st May - 11:20pm
    @Matthew Huntbach As regards Eastern Europe attitudes here are completely the reverse of what you think they are. For a start there is no culture...
  • User AvatarRoland 21st May - 11:01pm
    @Eddie "To counter your argument I would say that it is better to have state run industries than monopolistic or oligopolistic industries." Given the history...
  • User AvatarCaron Lindsay 21st May - 10:17pm
    I agree, Ed. I had feared they would vote against, though. I feel that they need to account for what they did.
  • User AvatarEd Fordham 21st May - 9:37pm
    Clearly individual MPs have to account for themselves but is it appropriate for the Deputy Leader and Party President of the Liberal Democrats, Messers Hughes...