JJ |
March 1, 2013 |
11:24 am |
8 comments
The Green Benches Blog

The Green Benches Blog

 

 

 

We Oppose the Bedroom TaxAt 1 pm on 16 March, people opposed to the #BedroomTax will be gathering in city centres in more than 30 locations throughout the UK to protest against the policy.
 
You can join us by following the links to any one of the #BedroomTax protests below.
 
Note that 3 of the protests below (in blue) will be taking place on the 30 March.  
 
Foster parents, disabled persons, single parents and families with a recently bereaved member are the groups of people whom this policy hurts the most.
 
The #BedroomTax should not apply to these groups of people and we are calling on the government to delay the policy by at least 1 year while they rethink a way to make the policy much fairer.
 
We think the policy should be wholly scrapped as social renters make five times better use of their space than owner occupiers, and it is unfair to tax bedrooms when 700,000+ houses lie empty. 
 
Below is a list of 25 of the demonstrations taking place throughout the UK.
 
There will be at least 10 more additional protests taking place including Blackpool, Cambridge, Lincoln, Southampton, and elsewhere.
 
I will add the other locations to this list after the details are finalised. If you wish to attend a protest, you can add your name to the attendance list by clicking on any of the locations below. If you have any queries you can email 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Also – A Demonstration at The Scottish Parliament on 15th March – Time to be announced
 
This petition calls for:
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to amend Section 16 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 to prevent social landlords from using rent arrears caused by under occupation housing benefit deductions in eviction actions, and instead requiring such under occupation arrears to be pursued as an ordinary debt.

PLEASE SIGN!! http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/GettingInvolved/Petitions/bedroomtax

 
Bath (https://www.facebook.com/events/165438936942419) (Vicky Drew & Sam Baldwin) 
 
Belfast (https://www.facebook.com/events/331242963654679/) (Betty Culpeck & C Dunlop)

Birmingham (https://www.facebook.com/events/212109875580341/) (Rhiannon Lockley)
 
Brighton (https://www.facebook.com/events/578882008789864) (Adrian Morris & Michelle Maher)
 
Carlisle (https://www.facebook.com/events/163903523761180/) (Jaci Champney & Lisa Sherriff)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Also – A Demonstration at The Scottish Parliament on 15th March – Time to be announced
 
This petition calls for:
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to amend Section 16 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 to prevent social landlords from using rent arrears caused by under occupation housing benefit deductions in eviction actions, and instead requiring such under occupation arrears to be pursued as an ordinary debt.

PLEASE SIGN!! http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/GettingInvolved/Petitions/bedroomtax


Halifax (22/03/13) (https://www.facebook.com/events/407884659303950) Jonathon Maguire
 
 
Leeds (https://www.facebook.com/events/465476180185983) (Neil Walshaw & Alex Sobel)
 
Oxford (https://www.facebook.com/events/415841695176263) (Beverley Clack & Michelle Paule)
 
 
Plymouth (https://www.facebook.com/events/456044871133544/) (Suzy Franklin & Charlene Sibley)
 
 
Warrington (https://www.facebook.com/events/584498361580314/) (Wayne Blackburn)
 
 
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8 Responses

  2. Why don’t we fight fire with fire? Let’s support a bedroom tax, BUT it must apply to ALL housing whether social or private, and everyone is allowed TWO supposedly spare bedrooms, but a tax is payable beyond that amount. This would keep the vast majority of social housing occupiers out of the tax bracket, maybe even all of them.

    Given that most MPs have two homes, that means that they each have an entire house of spare bedrooms, and Lord Freud probably has about 17 spare bedrooms in his mansion alone, without any other homes that he has. Let’s face it, that mansion could house at least 5 homeless families, so why should he and his wife have it all to themselves without paying extra tax on it?

    So what rate of tax? I’m thinking that the more spare rooms anyone has beyond the allowance of two, the more they should pay for each additional room, so lets say £10 a week for the first extra beyond the allowance of 2, £20 for the second, £30 for the third, and so on. So Lord Freud would have to pay £1530 a week for the spare rooms in his mansion, and if he has, say, a 4 bed London home the tax on those bedrooms would start at £180 for the first (as the 18th in his total) and work up to £210 for the fourth for another £780, for a total of £2310 per week.

    Let’s see how the posh boys like the idea of a bedroom tax when THEY would be the ones that would have to pay it.

  3. The only way to become as wealthy as the elite is through theft and crime, even the old money came from slavery and exploitation the history of how they reached their present prominence long forgotten. Unfortunately we are the human sacrifices on this altar of insatiable greed.

  4. I Wish the Peaceful Demonstrators Well

    I Wish For Redistribution of Wealth from Rich to Poor

    Tax The Rich They Have the Money and Hands Off the Poor

  6. I was wondering what had happened to the Parker Morris standards for the space needed by families of various sizes. Turns out the Tories got rid of them, then Labour brought them back in, then the Tories got rid of them again.

    One up for Boris Johnson; it seems he is trying to get a minimum standard of space for both public and private housing in London set at Parker Morris + 10%.

    I read on one site that a small room that is classed as a bedroom under this legislation could be declared to be too small for a bedroom by Social Dervices. So then what happens?

    How is it decided that a room is a bedroom? If it has a washing machine put in it does it become a utility room instead? If you demolish the wall between two bedrooms, do they suddenly become one bedroom?

  7. Dave, the landlord decides what counts as a bedroom. Some HA’s have been reassessing their properties and defining small rooms as storage/box rooms so that their tenants aren’t affected.

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