Peers urged to halt 'grossly unfair' spare bedroom tax

Published by Ross Macmillan for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central Government, Communities, Local Government

Housing bodies in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland are calling on the Government to water down plans to penalise social housing tenants living in homes with a spare room.

The Welfare Reform Bill enters its report stage in the House of Lords this week and includes plans to cut the housing benefit of social tenants living in homes deemed too large for their needs.

The Government argues that this will cut the soaring housing benefit bill, encourage people to downsize and free-up homes for larger families and bring the sector more in line with the private sector.

According to the Government, the plans - which come into force from 2013 - will hit 670,000 tenants living in the social rented sector in Great Britain who will lose an average of £13 a week.

Crossbench peer Lord Best plans to table an amendment to the Bill that would see those under-occupying homes by just one spare room exempt from any cuts.

This would ensure ‘under-occupation’ is defined in line with existing Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) guidance, which states homes should be allocated on the basis of the ‘Bedroom Standard plus one’.  Under this definition, under-occupation occurs only where more than one bedroom above the Standard is deemed to be ‘spare’.

The National Housing Federation (NHF) has also called on the Government to back the amendment, but it says it will need the support of peers from across the political spectrum to stand a chance of making the statute books.

Last week, it said the "spare bedroom tax could cost social tenants £1,400 a year".

That's because tenants with one spare bedroom make up nearly 80% of the 670,000 households affected by the under-occupation cuts, thus the amendment would seriously dent the Government's estimated savings from the policy.

The Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations (NIFHA) has called on all NI Peers to support Lord Best’s goal to secure cross-party support for the amendment.

NIFHA’s Chief Executive, Chris Williamson, said: “The reforms proposed by Government do not take into account the many uses a spare room could have, including a bedroom for foster children, a space for relatives or carers to stay, or allowing teenage children their own space to do homework. 

“If these proposals are agreed they will push thousands of people in Northern Ireland living in social housing into hardship or out of their homes.  This is why NIFHA, in conjunction with the other housing Federations in the UK, have contacted Members of the House of Lords (Peers) asking them to attend the Report Stage of the Welfare Reform Bill and to vote in favour of Lord Best's "under-occupation" amendment."

NIFHA argues that in Northern Ireland people would see a cut in their benefit with no prospect of being able to move to a smaller social rented home as there is a limited supply of decent, affordable one bed properties.  It warns that in rural areas people may have to move miles away to find a smaller home with some moving to the private rented sector where the rent (and therefore the benefit bill) will be higher.

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) has written to all Scots Lords urging them to back Lord Best’s amendment.

Maureen Watson, Policy and Strategy Director at the SFHA, said: “This is possibly the last opportunity to amend the Welfare Reform Bill to prevent some gross unfairness to particular groups of tenants in Scotland and elsewhere.

“The SFHA is urging all Scottish Lords to back Lord Best’s amendment on ‘under-occupation’ which would prevent tenants with a ‘spare’ room unfairly having their help with housing costs docked. Often there are simply no smaller properties for people to move to – leaving them in an impossible situation.

“We are working closely with our sister federations across the UK to try to achieve cross-party support for this amendment, which would prevent people on low incomes being unfairly penalised, and we urge all Scottish Lords to support it.”

Independent research commissioned by the SFHA revealed that up to one in five tenants in Scotland will see their incomes fall due to the Coalition Government’s reforms to Housing Benefit . The research analyses the impacts on different groups of people, and proposes a range of ways of mitigating the most severe impacts which could see some tenants losing hundreds of pounds a year.