The Bedroom Tax is the most hated of the Coalition’s welfare cuts- perhaps the only one with a solid majority (about 2 to 1) of the public opposed to the policy. It’s not that the principle is unacceptable: it sounds reasonable to ask those on Housing Benefit to live in a correctly sized home or pay some of the cost of the ‘luxury’ of a spare bedroom. Indeed, in times of a housing crisis, underoccupancy should be discouraged regardless of whether you own, rent independently, or rent with Housing Benefit. However, there are so many problems with the practicalities of almost any such policy that it could not be done without genuine cruelty.
I could rant about the absurdity of forcing tenants out of homes because they have a ‘spare bedroom’ of about 60 square feet- basically a windowed cupboard that you could cram a single bed into. Or how nasty it is to punish people for not moving into 1 and 2 bedroom social houses when they’re simply not available to move into. Or even demanding that the elderly vacate a family home of several decades, and find £1,000 in moving costs to do so. But it is well-worn ground, and I have one point that should cause thought even in the Bedroom Tax’s proponents: it will cost the state money to implement. A wave of new red tape, discretionary assistance payments and the incentive the Bedroom Tax provides to move into smaller, more expensive private rentals means that it is costing us money to penalise these people.
Such were the arguments put forward by the Parliamentary Labour Party yesterday when it forced a debate on repealing the Bedroom Tax. With the Liberal Democrats undergoing their familiar routine of sounding compassionate but doing exactly as the Tories (at least the Conservatives are honest!). Labour wanted to show the nation that the Liberal Democrats had an opportunity to put their money where their mouths are. And of 57 Lib Dem MPs, 2 voted against their whip. Overall, a slender majority of just over 20 defeated Labour, meaning that just a dozen Lib Dem rebels could have swung the vote: something that we should never let the electorate forget.
The voices of Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Rachael Reeves and the rebel President of the Liberal Democrats will be heard for many years as their warnings of ghettoisation and decline are realised.
