'Bedroom tax' protest in Camborne: PICTURES

3:00pm Monday 18th March 2013 in News

Pictures: Alexandria Pesic Pictures: Alexandria Pesic

A protest against government plans to introduce a 'bedroom tax' has taken place in Camborne.

The march, planned by the Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance, "in conjunction with other community groups', set off from in the square at the top of Trelowarren Street, between 12 and 1 o' clock on Saturday 

A spokesman for CACA said: "Along with benefit cuts in real terms, 30 per cent reductions in council housing benefit and new council tax impositions, this is another attack on the poorest by the rich elite. "At the same time, the ConDem government are giving 13,000 millionnaires like the housing minister, owner of an 8 bedroomed country mansion and a £2m townhouse, a tax CUT of £100,000 per year.

"Economics has little to do with this; it is further vindictive attempt to turn ordinary Cornish people against each other, in order to divert attention from the chaos of the bankers' crisis and the huge and growing inequality gap."

Comments(15)

Gillian Zella Martin 09 says...
7:48am Sat 16 Mar 13

I believe this is another scheme the government has not thought through properly. One minute the government are saying that the under 25s should live with their parents so as to not claim benefits, now they are saying people should not have spare bedrooms, so what happens if an under 25 is away studying and then wants to return home at a later time. What happens about couples that have separated and for example the father wishes to have their child to stay or to care for them at times when their mother cannot. What happens when an elderly person decides/needs to have someone stay or live with them to care for them. Where are all these smaller properties for people to downsize into, who is going to pay the moving expenses and if one moves from council/social rented into privately rented if that is all that is available then the rent will likely be dearer so how does that save money. What happens regarding transport to work if someone is living in an appropriate place for their work. None of this actually personally affects me or any of my family but I feel sorry for those it will affect. This government in my view is out of touch with reality and particularly rural living situations and lack of social housing in Cornwall.

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Gillian Zella Martin 09 says...
8:06am Sat 16 Mar 13

I am not sure if there is already an incentive scheme in place or not, but in some counties local authorities offered people in social rented properties a thousand pounds for each bedroom they gave up excluding of course one, plus removal fees if they downsized to another property. This way it encouraged those to vacate three and four bedroom properties etc without forcing those who did not wish to do so. In addition to this, financial help was also offered to those giving up a social rented property to purchase their own from the open market. I always believe helping people is a better option than forcing people.

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GrahamHarris says...
9:25am Sat 16 Mar 13

Why are there so many people in social housing anyway? Why do they get their rent paid at all?

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Gillian Zella Martin 09 says...
12:04pm Sat 16 Mar 13

GrahamHarris wrote:
Why are there so many people in social housing anyway? Why do they get their rent paid at all?
There are many people in social housing because they cannot afford mortgages on their wages or are Ineligible for various reasons such as having a CCJ against them, or bankruptcy, redundancy etc and these people need somewhere to live particularly if they already have children. Some people in social housing, not all, get their rent or some of it paid if they are unemployed.

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helstonborn says...
5:44pm Sat 16 Mar 13

I whole heartedly support the scheme- it's my tax that pays for these houses so if they would like a larger one than they require they can foot the bill for it. Talk about having your cake and eating it- if they find a free house too much hassle they can always rent their own or buy one.

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Gillian Zella Martin 09 says...
7:10pm Sat 16 Mar 13

I am just interested helstonborn, if say, someone was living in Helston for many years and had three children in a social rented property then those children grew up and left home, the person/couple left are told to downsize to a one bedroom property, what would you suggest they do if there are no one bedroom properties available ?

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Lanty Slee says...
8:30pm Sat 16 Mar 13

It should be based on availability, if no other suitable options are available in the surrounding area then no tax should be applied.

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Gillian Zella Martin 09 says...
9:09pm Sat 16 Mar 13

Lanty Slee wrote:
It should be based on availability, if no other suitable options are available in the surrounding area then no tax should be applied.
I think that is a very sensible compromise.

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Jo Kernow says...
9:12pm Sat 16 Mar 13

They could always take in lodgers, that way they get to stay where they are and probably pay their own rent until such time as they are able to draw their pensions.

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titanium says...
11:23am Sun 17 Mar 13

In recent history, Labour have spent all the money, then the Tories got in and sorted out the accounts, and so it has gone on like that.
We now have the Tories trying to sort out another mess, but they don't seem to be up to the job.
Instead of promising even more in Foreign Aid (£13 billion for the next 12 months) they should be sorting out our problems first.
Debt. Health Service. Social Services. Education. Housing. And our roads are falling apart through neglect.
In their desperation to sort debt, they are hitting some of the most vulnerable in society. Time to get back to the drawing board.
I hope UKIP manage to win a few seats at the next Gen. Election. We need to break up this cosy Con/Lab/Lib club, because they are all making a mess of things. And don't start me on Wind Farms !!.

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Gillian Zella Martin 09 says...
3:17pm Sun 17 Mar 13

titanium wrote:
In recent history, Labour have spent all the money, then the Tories got in and sorted out the accounts, and so it has gone on like that.
We now have the Tories trying to sort out another mess, but they don't seem to be up to the job.
Instead of promising even more in Foreign Aid (£13 billion for the next 12 months) they should be sorting out our problems first.
Debt. Health Service. Social Services. Education. Housing. And our roads are falling apart through neglect.
In their desperation to sort debt, they are hitting some of the most vulnerable in society. Time to get back to the drawing board.
I hope UKIP manage to win a few seats at the next Gen. Election. We need to break up this cosy Con/Lab/Lib club, because they are all making a mess of things. And don't start me on Wind Farms !!.
I completely agree with you and as for wind farms I believe some abroad are going rusty and falling to bits and have had to be dismantled. Personally I would rather have an estate of houses in view than a wind farm.

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titanium says...
4:08pm Sun 17 Mar 13

GZday.M, I too would far rather have a nice well tended estate any day.

I did read in the Telegraph a few months ago that there is a huge dump of old wind turbines in Europe, and they don't know what to do with them.
Same in the USA.

Remove the huge taxpayer funded subsidy and you wouldn't see another windmill built.

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ucsweb says...
2:12pm Mon 18 Mar 13

What about the homes converted for disabled use? Often they have an attached agreement that the tennants will not move for a number of years.
If they do move they have to pay towards the conversion, then the council will have to pay to convert a new home!
If there is the shortage of homes that I often see reported in this paper, then where are they going to move to?

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Gillian Zella Martin 09 says...
3:16pm Mon 18 Mar 13

One view I was given by someone on this subject is that the bedroom tax should only be implemented on any new claim made now for housing benefit and only allow benefit for rooms required and leave existing claims as they are. This to me makes sense because like when they changed the age for claiming state pensions, that will only apply to those not already in receipt of their pensions, they did not suddenly say to those already relying on their pensions that they would stop and start again at 65 or 67 or whatever age is now applicable.

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Lord Barrington Forbes-Smythe says...
2:55pm Tue 19 Mar 13

Wish they wouldn't call it the bedroom tax: for me, it brings to mind a council official standing at the end of couples' beds with a clipboard, taxing them based on the number of, shall we say, "exploits", they perform.

Although that might make more sense than the current plan.

But to be serious, I think it could be useful if it is based on availability as a couple of people suggest above. Otherwise, it would be madness and create more poverty and homelessness... not that the Tories would care probably.

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