In what looks like a great victory for campaigners, Ed Miliband has pledged to scrap the coalition government’s controversial Bedroom Tax levy,.. if Labour win a majority in 2015.
Despite the pledge, senior party officials are urging the Labour leader not to wait until 2015 to make a formal announcement, but to jump the gun and announce it immediately.
Labour are experiencing a boost in morale after the government was dealt a bruising defeated in the House of Commons over action against Syria, and the party is desperate to win back voters who feel they have lost their way on the issue of welfare and benefits.
A party official close to Ed Miliband told the Sunday People:
“Labour WILL repeal the Bedroom Tax. The only question remaining is when.
“But the sooner it’s buried, the better. It’s not just cruel and inhumane in impact but it’s turning out to be the economics of the madhouse.”
Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has been reluctant to reverse the bedroom tax, the Sunday People has reported today, because he was concerned he would have to find £490 million from elsewhere, but new research has shown that the coalitions policy will push the housing benefits bill UP by £1.5 billion, because those affected could be forced into the private rental market where rents tend to be higher.
There are 1.5 million people in the private rental sector claiming housing benefit and this has increased by 70,000 in the past year. Some commenters argue this may be at least partly due to the impact of the bedroom tax.
In total there are 5,072,264 people claiming housing benefit in the UK and 987,00o of those are in work, according to Department for Work and Pensions figures.
A spokesperson for the TUC told the Sunday People:
“If Labour wants to make itself useful it should pledge now to scrap the Bedroom Tax rather than wait until 2015.
“That would hopefully encourage many landlords to hold off evictions, knowing that a Labour government will axe the tax and the associated financial losses.”
Labour MPs have said that the policy move would help unite both those on the left and right of the party by pleasing those who want to see the bedroom tax scrapped, whilst satisfying Labour MPs who do not want to see the housing benefit bill rise as a result of those affected forced into the private rental market. There remains a wide shortage in social housing homes in Britain.
By scrapping the bedroom tax it may help encourage welfare campaigners to vote for the Labour Party come 2015, unions have said.
Will this indeed be the case? Only time will tell….
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