Hundreds in bedroom tax ‘evictions’ protest

HUNDREDS of protesters called on Leeds Council not to evict tenants who get into rent arrears due to the controversial bedroom tax.

Placard-carrying children and pensioners joined activists from Hands Off Our Homes for a march and rally on Saturday calling on housing providers not to evict tenants.

Debbie Locke, a campaigner with Hands Off Our Homes, said: “Over 1,000 people marching against bedroom tax evictions is something Leeds City Council cannot ignore.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“They know it does not make financial sense to evict bedroom tax victims; they can save these people huge anxiety by making this commitment now.”

As children waved placards saying ‘Bedrooms are for playing’ and ‘No evictions’, the demonstration heard from tenants hit by the housing benefit cuts.

Ministers insist cutting benefits for social tenants with spare rooms is making the system fairer and could save £500m a year. But the under-occupancy penalty, dubbed the “spare-room subsidy” by the Government, is unfair, campaigners say, because there are so few alternative properties for people to move into if they are unable to pay the difference.

Leeds Council has said it might reclassify 865 of its own properties to protect those tenants from the bedroom tax but protesters said more was needed to protect the other households affected.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Campaigner Carole O’Keefe, of the Hands Off Our Homes’ group in Armley, Leeds, said: “We’ve been leafleting outside schools in Armley and I can’t believe what people are going through.

“We’ve been hearing some dreadful stories about young families that are going to be forced on to the streets.

“These are people with young kids who are already facing fuel and food poverty and that to me is unacceptable. There is such a strength of feeling about this.”

Last week a council spokesman said it was “working through” policies on dealing with rent arrears arising from welfare changes.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The authority has a “clear duty to all tenants to collect rent,” said the spokesman.

“Currently we are at the early stages of looking into whether or not it will be feasible to re-designate some of our council properties.”