Labour to get rid of Bedroom Tax if elected

[Titanic99]

I have to say I like the idea of getting rid of this tax and surely it's a vote winner for Labour.

 

Put simply for me, it's a simple question of do I want to give a little bit of money to a lot of the poorer people, or as in the case of the Tories to give a lot of money to a very few rich people then it's a no brainer.

 

Great idea for Labour this gets my vote.

[RonJeremy]

I have to say I like the idea of getting rid of this tax and surely it's a vote winner for Labour.

 

Put simply for me, it's a simple question of do I want to give a little bit of money to a lot of the poorer people, or as in the case of the Tories to give a lot of money to a very few rich people then it's a no brainer.

 

Great idea for Labour this gets my vote.

 

How is freeing up housing stock by encouraging people with underused council houses letting people with families anything other than fair?

[taxman]

How is freeing up housing stock by encouraging people with underused council houses letting people with families anything other than fair?

 

But it doesn't though does it? Neither will flogging off social housing free up housing stock.

[Berberis]

First of all its not a Tax, so stop calling it one, secondly how is allowing people to have thei rent paid for in houses they do not require. I know there are many people who have appealed against a decision and won, but thats not the government, but rather the people assessing the claims. If people can appeal and win, it shows the system has the fail safes it requires.

[-Boomer-]

It's a tax, end of

[the_bloke]

I have to say I like the idea of getting rid of this tax and surely it's a vote winner for Labour.

 

Put simply for me, it's a simple question of do I want to give a little bit of money to a lot of the poorer people, or as in the case of the Tories to give a lot of money to a very few rich people then it's a no brainer.

 

Great idea for Labour this gets my vote.

 

Would you support the removal of the restrictions of housing benefit paid to people in private rented accommodation as well? (The Local Housing Allowance).

[I1L2T3]

Its a badly thought out tax that penalises vulnerable people for the systematic failure of housing policy.

 

The sad thing is the fundamental idea behind it was good. Basically it should have been applied to new rentals only and then over maybe a decade the public housing stock would become much better allocated. That would have also helped with planning future building of new housing.

 

But.....the Tories wanted to do it all in a year. Knobs.

[Ms Macbeth]

Its a badly thought out tax that penalises vulnerable people for the systematic failure of housing policy.

 

The sad thing is the fundamental idea behind it was good. Basically it should have been applied to new rentals only and then over maybe a decade the public housing stock would become much better allocated. That would have also helped with planning future building of new housing.

 

I agree the principle was right and the application was badly thought out and carried through far too quickly.

 

I think it's worth pointing out one of the reasons behind its introduction. There was perceived unfairness in that people who couldn't get social housing had their rent allowance calculated on the size of property their household was entitled to. In comparison, a single person or couple fortunate enough to live in a council property could have a three or four bedroom home courtesy of the benefits system. I also saw quite a few examples where parents who had split had two family sized homes paid for by housing benefits. Again a comparison would show very few people who are paying rent or mortgages are able to afford two family sized homes.

 

I notice that UKIP are also promising to get rid of the 'bedroom tax'.

[I1L2T3]

I agree the principle was right and the application was badly thought out and carried through far too quickly.

 

I think it's worth pointing out one of the reasons behind its introduction. There was perceived unfairness in that people who couldn't get social housing had their rent allowance calculated on the size of property their household was entitled to. In comparison, a single person or couple fortunate enough to live in a council property could have a three or four bedroom home courtesy of the benefits system. I also saw quite a few examples where parents who had split had two family sized homes paid for by housing benefits. Again a comparison would show very few people who are paying rent or mortgages are able to afford two family sized homes.

 

I notice that UKIP are also promising to get rid of the 'bedroom tax'.

 

Indeed but we mustn't forget that many housing allocations were made on the basis of just getting people into what was available at a given time, even though the people making the allocations knew it wasn't right to stick families into smaller properties or singles/couples into houses.

 

The reasons for the shortages are well known The 80s saw a rapid sell-off of stock, councils legally prevented from using the cash from sales to build more and then the whole problem compounded by Labour, Tory and coalition governmets doing almost nothing for over 20 years to put things right.

[crookedspire]

The problem with the so called 'Bedroom Tax' is their is not enough council housing to downsize too. IV known people who were quite happy to downsize, went to the council (Chesterfield and North East Derbyshire councils IM referring too here) but nothing was around to have in any area and have ended up paying the short fall in Housing Benefit. The only way for this to work is to build more council housing, notable one bedroom accommodation but this has not happened only thing been built is private housing.