I got wind of this about an hour ago.
Here is tomorrow’s Daily Mirror front page.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
More to follow. In the meantime, have a read of my post from earlier.
That’ll be number 22 on Stephen Tall’s list of policies that we share with Labour…
Update: 22:47.
This email has just been sent from Danny Alexander explaining the party’s thinking. We’re not going for abolition, but for a great reform which means that nobody would have to pay unless they had turned down an offer of a smaller property which ticks a lot more of the fairness boxes.. The review yesterday which shows that the policy simply wasn’t working, has prompted the change of heart. Good old fashioned evidence based policy;
Earlier in this Parliament, the Government changed the way that Housing Benefit was paid to families in social housing to make the payment related to the number of rooms they actually need, effectively removing what was termed ‘the Spare Room Subsidy’. We did this for a number of reasons. Chief among them was to give people a financial reason to downsize where possible and free up bigger homes for larger families. We also needed to make sure that our welfare budget was sustainable in the longer term.
This week, a Government report has produced evidence that this change is not delivering the outcomes that we need. The report shows that as few as 1 in 20 of affected claimants have downsized.
As Liberal Democrats, we are proud of our view that we should take evidence into account when making policy decisions. In this particular area, the evidence clearly shows that we need to change direction. And of course we as a party expressed our clear feelings on this at our recent conference.
We will be pressing our Conservative coalition partners to agree to these changes in this Parliament, but if they won’t we will set out new rules which I would expect to be in our 2015 manifesto.
Those new rules will set out that those already in the social rented sector should only see a reduction in their Housing Benefit if they are offered a suitable smaller home and, crucially, turn it down. We will also make sure that disabled adults are treated in the same way as disabled children, by permanently exempting them.
This is a complex and detailed area, and I hope you might feel able to follow this link to a fuller explanation of our new thinking.
While this is welcome news, it is unlikely to mean that the Bedroom Tax will be reformed immediately unless the Conservatives agree. But with a Parliamentary majority in favour of reform, would they have the temerity to resist?
Update: 23:04
I’d better go and learn Stephen’s list of policies where we agree with Labour off by heart. He tells me the Bedroom Tax was already on it. He was more of an optimist than I was about the leadership listening to the party.
* Caron Lindsay is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings