Fresh call for Labour to scrap bedroom tax to save councils £70m

THE NEW Labour governmnent has been urged to scrap the bedroom tax to save Scotland £70m a year.

Since the so-called spare room subsidy was brought in by David Cameron’s Tory government in 2013, SNP ministers in Holyrood have spent more than half a billion of taxpayers’ cash to mitigate its affects.

Now politicians, charities and the leader of the country’s biggest local authority are calling Keir Starmer to rip up the hated policy to free up money which could spent alleviating child poverty.

Glasgow City Council spends £14m a year – the most of any local authority – offsetting the levy.

Leader Susan Aitken said: “Austerity is a choice.

“Every penny the city spends trying to mitigate the worst effects of the austerity imposed on our communities by the UK Government could be put to work on other priorities and strengthening our public services if the new Government took a different direction.

“In truth we would almost certainly still choose to direct much of that money towards tackling poverty.

“The difference would be that the city’s efforts would have much greater impact – and could deliver more effective and sustainable outcomes for Glasgow families – if they weren’t constantly undermined by UK Government policies.”

Under the policy people who have one spare bedroom in their home have a 14 per cent reduction in their benefits while those who have two spare rooms got 25 per cent less.

At the same time a cap on how much people could receive in benefits was also introduced.

In 2017 Holyrood was granted the powers to mitigate the bedroom tax for its citizens as ministers feared not doing so would cause a raft of evictions and increased homelessness.

Scottish Government housing minister Paul McLennan also said he wanted the tax abolished.

He said: “Since 2017 we have invested over £613 million in Discretionary Housing Payments to mitigate the bedroom tax and benefit cap.

“We want to work with the UK Government to drive forward the action needed to end child poverty once and for all. However decades of Tory austerity and welfare cuts mean that the Scottish Government has been working with one hand tied behind our back.

“Over the past two years alone, the Scottish Government has committed almost £14 million to mitigating the benefit cap as fully as we can within our powers, helping to support around 2,300 families.

“And this year more than £70 million will be spent mitigating the bedroom tax, helping over 92,000 households in Scotland sustain their tenancies. We also continue to protect investment in the Scottish Welfare Fund at £41 million to support those most in need.

“That is money which could have been spent on services like health, education, transport, or on further ambitious anti-poverty measures.

“We continue to call on the UK Government to lift the benefit cap and bedroom tax, to benefit those on low-incomes in Scotland.”

Shelter Scotland campaigned for the Tories to abolish the bedroom tax back in 2013 and still believes it should be scrapped now under Labour.

Director Alison Watson said: “The bedroom tax was wrong when it was introduced and it’s wrong now.

“It’s always been clear that the UK Government should scrap it. The resources spent mitigating the bed room tax would be much better spent on the only long term solution to our housing emergency; building more social homes.”

Scottish Labour was asked if it supported the calls to scrap the tax but said it wasn’t able to comment.

A UK Government spokesperson said: “We are committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make work pay and tackle poverty, recognising the very challenging state of the economy and public finances.

“This new government will deliver the change needed to grow the economy and make everyone better off.”

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