Saturday, February 23, 2013

The impact of the bedroom tax in the Highlands

Again from the Highland Council website: 

"Councillor Christie said the “Bedroom Tax” was the single biggest immediate concern relating to Council house and housing association tenants. It was estimated that this would affect around 3,000 council house tenants in Highland (23% of tenants). This measure alone would result in a reduction of around £2 million per year in housing benefit entitlement. An additional factor was that Housing Benefit is currently received directly by the Council in payment of rent but under the new Universal Credit, which starts to be phased in in Scotland from October 2013, one person in each household would receive monthly payments towards their housing costs and be responsible for budgeting to make these rent payments to the Council."

If you will be affected then, unfortunately, there aren't many one-bedroom properties available if you fancy flitting to avoid what's coming. 
"The Council has made changes to its allocations policy to make it easier for people to move to a smaller house, but it did not have enough smaller houses for everyone who needed them. For example, it only had 450 one-bedroomed properties available for let in the last year.

The Council, he said, had agreed to increase resources to its Income Maximisation Team, CABs and Housing Team to deal with the increased demand for services which is already evident.

He added: “In Alness, for example, the Council had 13 one-bedroom houses available in the last year, against an existing housing list of 170 applicants who had listed Alness as their 1st preference area. The Council estimates that there are 136 tenants in Alness affected by the bedroom tax who would be assessed as requiring a one-bedroom house. The Council cannot meet existing demand for 1 bedroom houses, and will not be able to transfer all tenants affected by the “bedroom tax” to the right size of house.”"    This information was presented to Highland MPs recently - more here on the HC website. 

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder how much it would cost to convert 2 bed properties to one bed if it's just a case of knocking down a stud partition wall?
Seems a nuts tax the like we haven't seen since the window tax
Good old Tories converting a few more folk to vote Yes next year

Anonymous said...

yer nae allowed tae knock doon walls in cooncil hooses tho ya numpty

Anonymous said...

How will they afford Sky TV now?

Anonymous said...

@Anon 6:30 PM

Same way as you do

Anonymous said...

Just another Cameron tax-wonder what will be next-he really is a pillock that man--talk about kicking people when they are down.

Anonymous said...

For the past 40 years Westminster governments have either been right wing or headed in that direction.
Scotland has not seen similar political values, with Labour, Lib Dems, and Independents being the main political choice of it's people.
Next year we'll be given the chance to change who rules us and be rid of the right
Who in Scotland supports the bedroom tax, very few if any, for who would support taking more tax from the poorest to cushion the well off, only the Tories. Let us be rid of their rule in 2014

Anonymous said...

Really? How can you be sure that the price for gaining more popularity won't be that the SNP becomes more 'Right Wing' ?

How about this 'Right Wing Agenda for the SNP'

http://reidfoundation.org/2012/10/a-right-wing-agenda-for-the-snp/

SNP Dingwall web site, 'History of the SNP'

http://inchbrakie.tripod.com/snpdingwall/id9.html

And although ten years old

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/1999/02/scot-f03.html

Anonymous said...

The SNP used to be known many years ago as the Tartan Tories, but I would much rather be governed by them than any government we have seen in recent years in Westminster. Besides, a Yes vote in 2014 means new political parties for Scotland which would prove very interesting. I would imagine the SNP to gradually fold if we gain independence, their job done

Djinn said...

Humour saves the day! I am intrigued to see what's to come next! I pay my taxes but can't get transport where I am. The experts claim all is working in perfect order! lol '
Food prices are rising, the regulators say, pensions are sufficient! lol
Bedroom tax in place but the council doesn't have enough one bedroom houses. lol
YOu must have the sense to see how hilarious it is. Politicians the rare breed have all worked it out whoohoooo !

Jane Harkiss said...

As Dave Camoron would say: "We're all in it together..." Except er, we're not. He on the other hand is in with the bwankers and tax evading multi-nationals. Hear hear! #votetoryplebs

P xx

APTSec said...

I got this email today from 'Shelter' Scotland:

'Dear Friend
From the 1st of April the UK Government’s ill-thought out bedroom tax will come into force for over 100,000 low income households in Scotland.

The bedroom tax imposes a levy on working age social housing tenants who rely on housing benefit to help meet all or some of their housing costs.

The UK Government argue that this will save taxpayers money by forcing ‘under-occupied’ tenants into small accommodation. However, the simple fact is that there are just not enough one-bedroom social homes for people to downsize to.

Instead tenants face one of three options:

make up the shortfall themselves from their already low incomes,
run up arrears and face possible eviction, or move into the private sector, costing the taxpayer more money as our new infographic clearly demonstrates.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151252736471890&set=a.402836396889.187804.101558386889&type=1&theater&notif_t=photo_comment

We agree with the Scottish Government that the UK Government must reverse these cuts and that Scottish ministers are not able to mitigate all the impact of these reforms.

But, Scottish Ministers are not powerless to act to protect council tax payers who will have to foot the bill of increased homelessness or those vulnerable tenants at risk of losing their home.

We believe that evicting tenants because of the bedroom tax is unacceptable and we want Scottish Ministers to act and protect Scotland's tenants who are under threat.

We have set out a three-point plan to ask the Scottish Government for:

1 a guarantee that no-one should be evicted for Bedroom Tax arrears

2 no-one to be deemed intentionally homeless if evicted for Bedroom Tax arrears

3 make up to £50 million available this year to protect social landlords from bankruptcy

Help us persuade Scottish Ministers to act.

Sign our petition now to ask Margaret Burgess MSP, Scotland’s Housing Minister to implement our three point plan.

http://scotland.shelter.org.uk/get_involved/campaigning/bedroom_tax/_nocache

Many thanks
Gordon MacRae
Head of Communications and Policy
Shelter Scotland

I didn't vote for these cu*ts said...

What a nice landlord, I hope others follow

http://tinyurl.com/aphrw2a

Jane Harkiss said...

Absolutely!

P xx