Hull MP welcomes Labour pledge to axe Coalition Bedroom Tax

Hull North MP Diana Johnson has welcomed Ed Miliband's announcement that if elected a Labour Government will abolish the Coalition's Bedroom Tax.


Ed Miliband MP, Leader of the Labour Party, has committed the next Labour government to repealing David Cameron's Bedroom Tax, and announced that he and Ed Balls have already earmarked funds to pay for it.


Speaking in Brighton at the start of the Labour Party conference, Mr Miliband said that the Bedroom Tax has become a symbol of an out of touch government standing up only for the interests of a privileged few, describing how two-thirds of the 660,000 people affected are disabled and the vast majority do not have the option of moving to smaller accommodation.


Although both the National Housing Federation and the National Audit Office have questioned whether the Bedroom Tax will raise all, or even any, of the £470 million claimed by the Treasury, Mr Miliband said that One Nation Labour will not pay for promises on social security with extra borrowing.


Instead, money is being earmarked to pay for the repeal of the Bedroom Tax by closing boardroom loophole schemes and tax scams.


Reversing George Osborne's £150 million tax cut for hedge funds announced in Budget 2013.
Scrapping George Osborne's "shares for rights" scheme which has been rejected by businesses and has opened up a tax loophole of up to £1 billion.
Tackling tax scams in the construction industry which is costing £500million in lost revenue.


Diana Johnson MP said: "The Bedroom Tax, or what the Tories and their Lib Dem partners call the 'spare room subsidy', is a symbol of an out of touch, uncaring Coalition targeting the most vulnerable whilst handing out tax cuts to the nation's millionaires.


"I welcome practical measures to use social housing more efficiently and to cut the Housing Benefit bill, but the Bedroom Tax will never do this. Figures a few months ago showed that 6,900 Hull families will be hit by the Bedroom Tax, but that only around 70 smaller council homes were available for them to downsize into.


"The tax cuts for hedge funds introduced earlier this year cannot be a priority when disabled people are being plunged into debt. The Bedroom Tax is a cruel and unfair policy that hits the vulnerable and, what's more, risks costing more than it saves. That is just not the kind of Britain most people in Hull want to live in.


"Labour launched our national campaign against the Bedroom Tax in Hull. I'm delighted that my Party has carefully costed plans to axe this cruel and wasteful measure if Labour comes to power in 2015. 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."