Review bedroom tax – George

West Cornwall MP, Andrew George, is urging Government Ministers to review the impact of the bedroom tax following a report from York University which was published yesterday (14th October 2013).

The report showed that the bedroom tax was not generating the savings anticipated by Government Ministers.

Mr George said:

“Even a saving of £320m (rather than the predicted £480m predicted) would not have discouraged DWP Ministers from going ahead; lower predicted savings would not in itself have been a show stopper. But the research appears to undermine confidence in and justification for the policy.

“It’s the consequences of the “spare room subsidy” on people (therefore difficult to put a value on) and the consequent costs (hard to establish) that I’m most interested in – i.e. as set out in Section 7 of the report.

“A primary reason why I’m opposed to this policy is that it presupposes that all tenants can seamlessly move on within their community without any unwelcome disruption to their work, school, social, family and medical ties. This is not the experience in rural locations like mine.”