Labour confirms it will scrap the 'bedroom tax' if elected in 2015 - Polidicks

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24182448[/url] [quote]Labour has said it will reverse controversial changes to housing benefit if it wins the next election. Ed Miliband said the reduction of support for social tenants in England, Scotland and Wales deemed to have surplus bedrooms was unfair. Critics of the shake-up have dubbed it a "bedroom tax" but ministers said they are tackling "spare room subsidies" not available in the private sector. ... For months Labour has argued the change is wrong, unfair and penalises disabled people in particular, but had not committed itself to reverse the policy should it gain power after the election. But Mr Miliband has now said the change would be paid for by scrapping a tax break for hedge funds and the Treasury's new shares-for-rights scheme.[/quote]

I was going to vote for them anyway but at least now I feel like I'm doing the right thing rather than the lesser of three evils. Oh wait remember that time when Politicians didn't do the thing they said they would do yeah me to.

[QUOTE=theenemy;42255711]I was going to vote for them anyway but at least now I feel like I'm doing the right thing rather than the lesser of three evils. Oh wait remember that time when Politicians didn't do the thing they said they would do yeah me to.[/QUOTE] If they didn't scrap something as big as this after promising it, I think there'd be riots.

Labour could promise to murder every first born son and people'd still vote for them.

It's not a tax, it's a benefit reform and in principle it is a good idea, why do most people need houses where they don't even use all the rooms? Granted there are some very specific cases (unfortunately the ones always cited) where there are genuinely good reasons e.g. Disabled people but there's no reason why they can't be exempt. Calling it a Tax is Spin to the most blatant degree. I hate it when people say that the Tories are out of touch and hate people and all that other BS, Difficult decisions have to be made in the long term interest of the majority of the people and the country and simply pandering to the electorate like Labour usually do is far worse.

No they won't. 'New' Labour didn't go away. They'll say anything populist and then do everything tory.

It's not a tax. Only question I'd ask it how much money does this lose the Treasury and what will be cut to be make up for the shortfall? My town has just managed to secure some hospital service after a possible cut, but it the money made from the spare room policy what's still keeping it afloat?

[QUOTE=The mouse;42256555]It's not a tax, it's a benefit reform and in principle it is a good idea, why do most people need houses where they don't even use all the rooms? Granted there are some very specific cases (unfortunately the ones always cited) where there are genuinely good reasons e.g. Disabled people but there's no reason why they can't be exempt. Calling it a Tax is Spin to the most blatant degree. I hate it when people say that the Tories are out of touch and hate people and all that other BS, Difficult decisions have to be made in the long term interest of the majority of the people and the country and simply pandering to the electorate like Labour usually do is far worse.[/QUOTE] There aren't enough smaller houses; those that do exist get more expensive by the minute. It's punishing the poor for a housing market beyond their control; a market whose existence is owed to a policy shared by both parties- 'make the housing bubble bigger'.

Although you might think this is a good reason to vote for them, I'm still thinking that the tax will either end up scrapped at some point or reformed by any other parties that get into power. For better or worse it's not a good promise.

[QUOTE=The mouse;42256555]It's not a tax, it's a benefit reform and in principle it is a good idea, why do most people need houses where they don't even use all the rooms? Granted there are some very specific cases (unfortunately the ones always cited) where there are genuinely good reasons e.g. Disabled people but there's no reason why they can't be exempt. Calling it a Tax is Spin to the most blatant degree. I hate it when people say that the Tories are out of touch and hate people and all that other BS, Difficult decisions have to be made in the long term interest of the majority of the people and the country and simply pandering to the electorate like Labour usually do is far worse.[/QUOTE] It's worse than a tax, it's either negligent in the extreme or malicious class warfare. If asking people to move into smaller homes that simply don't exist isn't out of touch I don't know what is.

[QUOTE=SeamanStains;42259573]It's worse than a tax, it's either negligent in the extreme or malicious class warfare. If asking people to move into smaller homes that simply don't exist isn't out of touch I don't know what is.[/QUOTE] But only very few people relative to the whole population are effected by it, and it does ultimately have a good and reasonable principle behind it, it provides better distribution of housing. What would be the point of the Tories going for Class warfare and screwing over the poor? They need their vote, to say that they're doing this to screw over poor people is just fucking dumb. They're not even forcing people to move, they're mearly cutting their housing benefit because of it, if people can't live within their means then that's hardly the fault of the government.

dunno about you guys, but based on the politics of the 21st century i would be very reluctant to vote for a party because of their so called 'promises', i also want this stupid labour-tory party switching we have to end, and have some other parties in (excluding UKrap + other far right parties)

[QUOTE=The mouse;42256555]It's not a tax, it's a benefit reform and in principle it is a good idea, why do most people need houses where they don't even use all the rooms? Granted there are some very specific cases (unfortunately the ones always cited) where there are genuinely good reasons e.g. Disabled people but there's no reason why they can't be exempt. Calling it a Tax is Spin to the most blatant degree. I hate it when people say that the Tories are out of touch and hate people and all that other BS, Difficult decisions have to be made in the long term interest of the majority of the people and the country and simply pandering to the electorate like Labour usually do is far worse.[/QUOTE] It is however immensely badly written legislation, as the required single bedroom housing doesn't exist in sufficient quantities for it to be sensible to force people to move into it. In addition, given that a supposedly independent committee created by the house of commons recently decreed that MP's deserve a 10k bonus, on top of all the other expenses their position allows, I believe we are punishing the many who do require state assistance while ignoring the greatest benefit exploiters of all. This all said, I do agree that Labour's move is undoubtedly pandering; I would not be surprised at all if by the time they get in, they drag their feet in scrapping it and eventually only tweak it slightly.