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One thing escapes most political commentators when critiquing the merits of the Bedroom Tax. It is, of course, a great socialist policy.
Of course most commentators accept New Labour introduced the Bedroom Tax through the Local Housing Allowance policy from 2003 to 2008. The mistake commentators make is that they believe LHA to be an ideologically compassionate conservative policy, instead of democratic socialist one.
The argument has two parts. The first is relatively straight forward. For a socialist common ownership (of which Social Housing is the product) means you have no unilateral rights to the property you live in. So the social housing home you’ve lived in for 40 years (according to the socialist) has never unilaterally been yours, it is owned by the society of which you are a part. Therefore you have a fundamental right to any social home, as society has a fundamental right to yours. The state mediates this ‘right’ on the basis of need. Therefore if individuals are under occupying then as socialists they happily give up their home to support the collective good.
Where the policy has got into trouble is in its application.
The policy on its own does not make the vulnerable suffer as they do, Councils are making that choice. Of course the conservative tendency or dialectical nature of the British political system demands partisan politics. In Glasgow, the City Council has been so ruthless as to agree to their housing associations raising the age at which children should cohabit to age 9 meaning some families are paying the bedroom tax even with all the rooms filled.
I’m proud to say though that this is not true of Councils led by groups with a conscience. Stockport Liberal Democrats have created a hardship fund paid for through its Housing Revenue Account giving people flexibility in a time of housing crisis, multiple opportunities to choose another ‘needs appropriate’ property and they have refused to allow anyone to pay the difference if there is nowhere for them to go.
Stockport Liberal Democrats have said NO to forcing people to pay when there is nowhere else to go, NO to partisan politics and YES to its fundamental belief in fairness, choice and equality for all in society.
As someone who was homeless on numerous occasions and who lived in overcrowded accommodation as a child I look at this issue very differently from most political commentators. My ultimate concern is those families that are suffering because of a shortage in housing supply. As an inherent collectivist I would not hesitated giving up my social home for vulnerable women and their children escaping domestic violence or even just trying to live a normal life as so many before them have enjoyed. My mammy raised me that way and I’ll never change. This is why the Democratic Socialist (#onenation) Labour Party’s position and that of its supporters is, on this issue, totally against their own ideology and as a result totally untenable and they should be challenged on this at every opportunity.
* Patrick McAuley is a councillor in Stockport
