[Vicky.]

Brighton and Hove council arent going to evict anyone who gets into debt over this ridiculous idea

http://keepourcouncilhomes.wordpress...r-bedroom-tax/

I hope other councils follow suit.




Arista, you say this is about saving money on the benefit bill as labour left debt. Now, I agree with you that its about saving money, but the government keep saying that its to 'free up larger housing for families'

It wont do either and heres why

- Pensioners are most likely to be 'underoccupying' than anyone else and they are exempt from this.
-Many people hit will be couples with no kids who have a 2 bed property. One bedroomed places are very rare, I'm sure most people know this. So these families that the houses need freed up for are going to be most likely in 2 bed places anyway. Why penalise the couple in a 2 bed property, despite there being nowhere for them to move to...and them moving wouldnt help anyone anyway? In short, there arent enough places for people to downsize to.
-People cannot afford the massive costs involved with moving..so wont move.

Now onto why it wont save money.

-Those that do move, will most likely move into private housing(as it has been confirmed by many many councils that enough smaller council properties dont exist), which costs a lot more on the housing benefit bill than social housing does.
-Among people who have to move are the disabled who have their properties adapted for their needs. Move these people, and its more cost to the government, having to adapt their new properties too.

There are many more arguments for both of those, but that was the first ones that came into my head when writing this

In short, a good idea in theory, very unfairly implemented, and not thought through well at all.