Scrap the unfair bedroom tax!

On 1 April David Cameron's government of the rich will unveil their vicious 'bedroom tax'. Council house and housing association (HA) tenants over 21 and under pension age that is judged to be 'under-occupying' their premises will lose much of their housing benefit (HB). They will lose14% for one 'spare bedroom' and 25% for two or more. There are already press stories about the effects on disabled people and families with disabled children, the sick, unemployed people, etc. Many people on housing benefit today are in work but on low pay and they too will suffer. This is a blatant class attack! Will bailiffs be sent into the stately homes of the super-rich to evict surplus millionaires? No. On the same day as the bedroom tax arrives the Con-Dems are cutting millionaires' taxes yet again, saving them over £100,000 a year! There are nowhere near enough one-bedroom homes to offer decent accommodation to the hundreds of thousands who the Con-Dems reckon are under-occupying their homes. House-building figures have crashed - fewer than 100,000 new homes were started in 2012 - the second lowest figure since 1946! Cash-hungry councils has practically stopped building new properties. The private rented sector has now reached 8.5 million, one in six households, who are paying more and more rent, often to a small number of giant greedy landlords. Cameron's regime hopes to force more tenants to follow suit by making social housing (i.e. council and HA) unaffordable - evictions and homelessness will follow. We cannot let this government force people out of their homes! Around the country, rage at this cruel new tax is exploding. In Scotland, where the heroic, organised and successful opposition to Thatcher's poll tax started over 20 years ago, Socialist Party Scotland members have started setting up anti-bedroom tax campaigns. Scrap the bedroom tax • Build support for anyone who cannot or will not pay this unfair, unjust tax • Councils and Housing Associations must refuse to evict any tenants who fall into rent arrears as a result of the tax • Stop the attacks on benefits and wages. Make the rich and big business pay for the economic mess - not ordinary people • For a major programme of council house-building to provide affordable homes for all. Nationalise the house-building companies and banks • Build a 24-hour general strike to bring down the Con-Dem government that is slashing jobs and services In this issue Socialist Party news and analysis Scrap the bedro With extracts taken from http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/755/16268/07-03-2013/scrap-the-bedroom-tax