Tim Farron has said that he expects that Liberal Democrats will oppose the so-called “Bedroom Tax” in 2015. In an interview with Inside Housing, he has said that in its current form it was causing hardship and depriving housing associations of the money to build much needed new homes. While he praised the Liberal Democrats who had secured more money for discretionary housing payments to mitigate its effects, he acknowledged that reforms were needed.
He said:
I would be disappointed if we did support it in its current form.
I do not expect our party to support this policy unreformed, we must take time to fix it, learn some lessons and make sure that it doesn’t hurt the most vulnerable in our communities.
It’s creating more hardship, it’s wrong and unnecessary… It’s impacting on people and the most vulnerable. It’s also having an impact on housing associations – it means they have less to invest in social housing.
I worry about distorting the building market. Currently we are building lots of one-bedroom properties which is reacting to a policy and it’s not in the long-term interest of the country.
Liberal Democrat Conference last Autumn overwhelmingly opposed the measure in its current form, calling for a review and for it not to be imposed unless someone had turned down a reasonable offer of a smaller property. 53% of respondents to a Liberal Democrat Voice survey also opposed the measure. It would certainly be difficult to persuade candidates and activists to support the retention of a policy which has caused so much hardship, especially as it’s now been effectively mitigated in Scotland with Liberal Democrat support.
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