I'm cancelling my meetings today to go to vote for the Lib Dem bill to fix the Tories' unfair bedroom tax. http://t.co/xIt9UTTmSF
— Vince Cable (@vincecable) September 5, 2014
What is not yet clear to us, even from the BBC report, is whether this is a genuine rebellion by a government minister – something that is almost unheard of – or whether there is some agreement to disagree in force. Do let us know in the comments if you have any more information.
There is more on Andrew George’s private members bill on Lynne Featherstone‘s blog:
The Bill is made of two parts – one is to secure a review of affordable housing by the Secretary of State, and the other would provide three new exemptions to spare bedroom rules.
Proposals mean that there will be no change to a person’s Housing Benefit if:
1) A property has been adapted for a disabled claimant, their partner, or a close relative living with them.
2) The DLA/PIP claimant, their partner, or a close relative living with them has a disability which prevents them from sharing a room.
3) The Local Authority or Housing Association has not made a ‘reasonable offer of alternative accommodation’
The equivalent restriction on housing benefit for private sector tenants was introduced by the previous Labour government, however it did not apply retrospectively to tenancies that were already in place. This reform would ensure that social tenants have the option of moving to a home that the housing benefit would cover.
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34 Comments
While I’m glad that the Lib Dems are finally doing something, albeit too little, about the bedroom tax fixing a problem they were warned about after the fact doesn’t do much to excuse voting for thing in the first place.
oh dear, oh dear, oh dear
something about horses and stable doors
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29075300
Becoming clearer, after the Tories were defeated.
If our leaders had listened to conference and activists on this and other issues, e.g NHS, we would not be in this difficult position. Let us hope they listen in October.
Heaven shall rejoice over a sinner who repenteth…
The unfair tax he voted for originally ?
The unfair tax he helped shore up in February ?
Sorry Vince it is a coalition tax not a Tory one.
Full marks to Andrew George for his opposition to the Bedroom Tax from the outset. i hope Labour will now respond to his challenge and we can get rid of this abominable attack on the poor as quickly as possible. A Tory defeat at the hands of a LibDem and other Parties voting coalition would go a long way to showing that we are not Tory stooges. No halfway measures. ABOLISH the Bedroom Tax.
Well we now have the policy that should have been proposed and passed from the start. Better late than never. Encouraging to see our Parliamentarians looking at the evidence and changing their minds on that basis!
According to the BBC: “All but three Liberal Democrat MPs backed the bill.( Nick Clegg, who is at the Nato summit in Wales, did not take part in the vote.)” (my brackets). Who were the other 2? Is it safe to assume they were simply unavoidably absent rather than voted with the Tories?
Two cheers for the LibDems, shame you voted for it in the first place, eh? Does this bill have any connection to the fact that the 2015 GE is about 8 months away, do you think?
“George’s bill is unlikely to make it to the statute book, as private members’ legislation often struggles to gain enough time to fulfil all the required stages without government backing, though George has the advantage of having won the ballot for MPs wanting to propose legislation earlier this year.”
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/05/bedroom-tax-bill-splits-coalition-second-reading
Two cheers is about right, but better late than never. Well done to those who achieved a victory in parliament. If it gets all the way through it will actually improve the lives of some people who really need it.
Over the last twelve months I have commented more than once on the hated bedroom tax and the many reasons why it should go. Perhaps those ” party loyalists “, they know who they are, will now apologise for some of the ridiculous claims they made when defending the indefensible? They must be feeling a bit foolish today.
Mark D’Arcy – ‘The normal way of killing a private members bill that has survived Second Reading is to bury it in amendments at Report Stage. But if the George Bill has a long drawn out Report Stage, there’s even less debating time left for the Referendum Bill, later on. So my bet is that the Affordable Housing Bill will now clear the Commons’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29081933
as Normal all hype no real change just restating rephrasing existing rules that apply So ALL Hot Air no change
the Tories’ unfair bedroom tax.
What breathtaking hypocrisy.
I am thrilled that as I only have one bedroom I can now subsidise extra space for others
The damage this has done, not just to a few 100 people but thousands and thousands.
If the places had been available for those affected to have sized down, it “might” have made some sense, but knowing full well that they were not and knowing it at the time it was waved through by Conservatives and Liberals alike means that it was nothing more than a spiteful punishment, social mass punishment for the political sake of it.
Holding the coat of the bully while they beat up on their victim and then running back after and offering a plaster and some antiseptic cream does not make it that much better.
What is it with this late discovery of principle? Surely principle is something more inherent and permanent than that, anything else is just politics and posturing surely?
“I am thrilled that as I only have one bedroom I can now subsidise extra space for others”
How about people who need an extra room according to their circumstances? Does it matter to you if uprooting people from their homes leads to increased cost in rehousing? Are you bothered by the lack of suitable housing for people who’d happily downsize?
If the answer to the above questions is a resounding ‘no’ then you should vote Tory – and be utterly ashamed of yourself.
Allan
I am thrilled that having no children that I subsidise the education of the children of others………except that I really am
what a ridiculous comment yours was and says more about you than the subject
@ KW – “No halfway measures. ABOLISH the Bedroom Tax.”
How do you propose providing social housing for the many families who sit on the list for years waiting because there are no properties of a suitable size?
jedi
build some?
“come back in ten years time. 🙂 “
It takes 10 years to build a house?
Pity it wasn’t started 10 years ago, or even 4 years ago – could even have thought about this 30 years go when the decision was made to flog ’em off………shame that the people who took those decisions are not impacted by this nasty policy. I never understood why it was made retrospective…
Shame as well there are no suitable sized housed for those who are being penalised, especially those pesky disabled people
Which one of the three points highlighted above do you disagree with?
now now, i think you know that isn’t the cause.
we’ve been building about 200,000 houses a year, and i understand to meet the replenishment rate that would need to rise by 50%.
it would take ten years to make a difference.
right now, here in the real world, we have tens of thousands with an endless wait on the list at the same time we have ten’s of thousands of unoccupied rooms in social housing paid for by the public purse.
go figure.
jedi
Not quite 200 000 per year – but don’t let the facts get in the way of your narrative.
http://blogs.channel4.com/faisal-islam-on-economics/201213-lowest-year-official-uk-housebuilding-1920s/19660
There is not enough social housing because they have been sold and not replaced – go figure!
There are also not enough 1 or 2 bedroom social housing to go into but again don’t let that bother you, as well as removing people from their homes (perhaps homes for years) like they are cattle
Again, which of the three points in the original article do you oppose and also why was the law made retrospective,, unlike the Labour policy for the private sector dwellings?
oh and that is total properties built – the numbers of social housing, especially in affluent areas, will be considerably less, although trying to find out how many is pretty difficult
total built is all that really matters. we have an absolute housing shortage, not just a shortage of social housing.
facts.
135,000 built, 320,000 needed:
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/may/19/savills-warns-uk-housing-crisis-shortage-new-homes
that is not a 50% increase, that is a 150%!
not gonna happen before a decades out. tax me some bedrooms.
p.s. which of the three measures do I oppose.
none really, and nor did i ever say i did.
i responded to the this enthusiastic ejaculation:
““No halfway measures. ABOLISH the Bedroom Tax.””
Great News but ………………………………..IF the Lib Dem MP’s had taken on board all of the excellent arguments put forward by the Lib Dem Peers many many of whom opposed this wretched Bill in the first place – including my Dad Lord Brian Cotter (formerly MP for Weston-Super-Mare) then the Liberal Democrat party would not look so unprincipled today ??
Whilst abolition of the House of Lords might be Lib Dem policy perhaps Lib Dem MP’s should step up to the plate first ?? !!
Cllr Nick Cotter, Independent Town Councillor, Bicester, Oxon (formerly Liberal Democrat) ……… for 30 years ………….
The Lib Dems are saying they will build another 170,000 affordable houses by the General Election. In the last quarter there were around 36,000 TOTAL houses started (so current rate is around 144,000 total starts per year.
That means an 20% increase in building is needed to meet that target even if they are all affordable houses. And more than doubling to meeting the manifesto target of 300,000.
Stephen Williams has posted a couple of pieces about this but doesn’t seem willing to expand on those figures.
jedi
So your 200 000 was plucked out of the air then, and I know more houses are needed, so I don’t understand why you assume I don’t
I just pointed out that there is not enough social housing, this has been known since ‘right to buy’ and subsequent Governments ignored it
The current Government has done more abjectly then even the last Labour one
I assume from your political stance that you support ‘right to buy’ which has been one of the major this situation and it seems to be extremely unfair when you seem to bemoan the lack of housing but then say the way to deal with it is to uproot people who have an extra room. The main issue to me is the retrospective application which is downright vindictive
The re is nothing wrong against being against this policy – why is abolishing it so extreme to you?
It could be that the size of family is taken into account for new social applicants but this needs to be properly discussed and a fair, workable law put in place
I am happy to join in and say ‘ABOLISH the bedroom tax’ as well – the whole law is flawed and should be put in the bin where it belongs
If it stays then is should also be applicable to those biggest of social housing recipients – the Windsors and the hangers on – how much did we pay for the Middleton-Windsors to have Clarence House renovated again?
John Tilley trots out the usual phrase ‘the hated bedroom tax’ on the assumption that everyone agrees with him and in my experience they don’t. The general public are pretty confused not least because some politicians and political commentators have to sought to cloud the issue by referring to something as a tax which clearly isn’t a tax.
Once explained many people support the principle of the benefit changes in that tenants in the public sector should be treated in the same way as those in the private sector when it comes to housing benefit. I haven’t found anyone yet who thinks that, other than temporarily, someone on housing support should enjoy the benefit of a property they themselves couldn’t afford when working.
I sometimes wonder what sort of cotton wool, feather bedded lives some of the commentators on this site have led. Often in life things go wrong or don’t go to plan so you make changes as you go along and you eventually get to where you want to be. So what Andrew George is trying to do is quite right.
I paid a lot of business and personal tax over the years and I have been happy to do so to help provide the public services expected in a civilised society, even though many public sector workers have ended up with far better pension arrangements then I have! But having created that private wealth on which the government was able to raise taxes I don’t accept that welfare support should be a free for all.
Whilst I welcome the parties U-Turn on the bedroom tax it does need to be acknowledged the level of hypocrisy.
Was a 3 line whip applied?
I was surprised to see Vince cable’s comments “i’m cancelling my meetings today to go to vote for the Lib Dem bill to fix the Tories’ unfair bedroom tax”
This was a coalition policy and up until the last week those at the top of the party always objected to the term “bedroom tax” so to see Vince not only say this is a TORY policy but also refer to it as a tax is a bit hypocritical and opportunism.
That said I do welcome the change in direction.
I just wish the parliamentary party had listened to it’s grass-roots and members earlier before this abhorrent policy had adversely affected so many hundreds of thousands of people.
People like my neighbor who lived in a 2 bedroom flat for over 20 years, , She was just under a year from retirement age so was not exempt from the bedroom tax. She struggled for almost a year to take the hit on the bedroom tax but in the end could no longer afford to keep making up the shortfall. There were no 1 bedroom flats available for her to downsize into, in the end she has had to move into private property rental costing more money to the tax payer.
Perversely my new neighbor who has just moved in ( though a thoroughly decent chap) is a single man who is currently serving in the army has been relocated to Norwich as he also attending the University. Because he does not claim Housing Benefit he is not subjected to the bedroom tax.
This is still social housing though and subsidized by the tax payers, So I do not understand how it is ok for a single man not in receipt of benefits to be given a 2 bedroom council flat, but it is not ok for a lady who is just short of retirement age and who has lived in the property for 20 years.
Yes the Housing Benefit Bill needs to be addressed, but the way to do that is to target the private landlords and introduce rent controls. It is the private landlords with property portfolios that are milking the welfare state NOT the claimants.
And whilst people keep trumpeting this 200’000 New properties being built a year, only a minor fraction of these are Social Housing.
We need to be building 200’000+ Social Housing properties a year in order to get the housing benefit costs down, otherwise we are just going to continue lining the pockets of these privileged property tycoons with portfolios.
Robert
Are they treated the same way in public or private rented housing?
Which posters do you think have feather-bedded, cosy lives?
Sounds like you have a bit of a chip on your shoulder to me!