A council has declared that none of its social tenants will be evicted if they cannot afford to pay the government's forthcoming bedroom tax.Brighton and Hove City Council has become the first local authority in the country to take such a stance.
Councillor Liz Wakefield said: "The so-called 'spare room
subsidy' is yet more immoral and harmful legislation from this
morality-free coalition government.
"As Greens, we cannot throw people out onto the streets
just because they're unable to pay it. I will therefore be
bringing proposals that seek to ensure no household will be
evicted from a Brighton and Hove City Council owned home as a
result of ‘spare room subsidy’ rent arrears accrued solely from
that household's inability to pay this unjust bedroom tax."
She added that steps would be taken to ensure that tenants
don't take advantage of the proposals, and that officers would
have to be satisfied that those pushed into arrears by the bedroom
tax were doing everything they could to pay their rent.
Brighton Pavilion MP, Caroline Lucas, is also backing the
proposals. She said: "The so-called bedroom tax legislation is not
only morally wrong and a cause of great potential hardship, it is
also unworkable in a city with a long waiting list for smaller
properties.
"The council cannot downsize households on the scale
required by the government, nor would we want it to, and we should
not be prepared to evict hard-pressed families, the disabled and
other vulnerable people purely because they are unable to pay this
unjust levy on a home they either cannot or should not have to
leave.”
Chair of Brighton and Hove Green Party, Rob Shepherd,
said: "This government is willing to see people thrown out onto
the streets purely because they can't pay their bedroom tax.
"They can be sentenced to homelessness simply for trying to
maintain a normal, liveable family home. The Conservative and
LibDem coalition government should be ashamed of itself and, as
Greens, we will have no part of it.
"I congratulate the party and councillors who are taking
such a principled stand. We call on the other parties to support
us in protecting, in this way, some of our most vulnerable
residents."
