Labour promises repeal of bedroom tax

Nia Griffith MP has welcomed Labour’s firm commitment to repealing the bedroom tax, saying it will give hope to the many disabled and vulnerable people in Wales who have been unfairly hit by David Cameron’s cruel tax.

The Bedroom Tax has hit over 40,000 people across Wales, affecting over 800 households in the Llanelli constituency alone. For the vast majority of those affected, there is nowhere smaller to move to, so people are faced with paying the extra, ranging from £14 up to as much as £30 a week, out of money they need for food and warmth.

Where people have been able to find smaller properties in the private rented sector, their rent for a smaller property in the private sector is often higher that for a larger property in the social housing sector, so now there is now a real risk the bedroom tax will cost more than it saves.

Nia Griffith MP said:

“Repealing the Bedroom Tax is absolutely the right thing to do. We are already seeing people genuinely struggling to pay their rent, and mounting rent arrears are leaving housing associations and councils short of money for upgrading existing stock and building new homes.”

“The bedroom tax tells you all you need to know about how out of touch David Cameron is,targeting the most vulnerable whilst handing out tax cuts to the nation’s millionaires. It doesn’t have to be this way. The next Labour Government will need to make tough choices on spending and in these tough times we won’t borrow more to pay for social security. But we can and will do things differently.”

The next Labour Government will repeal the Bedroom Tax without extra borrowing. To cover the £470m cost of repealing the Bedroom Tax, funds will come from reversing George Osborne’s recent tax cut for hedge funds, tackling scams in the construction industry and scrapping George Osborne’s ” shares for rights ” scheme which has been rejected by businesses and has opened up a tax loophole costing the exchequer £1bn