Freud: Bedroom Tax Will Ease Overcrowding

The coalition government’s bedroom tax will ease overcrowding and help tackle the shortage of social housing, Lord David Freud has said.  Speaking at a Local Government Association conference, the welfare reform minister defended the controversial policy, which will see social housing tenants of working age docked benefit for having a spare room. The policy is estimated to affect 660,000 households, who will lose £14 a week on average.  Lord Freud said: ‘Nearly a third of working-age social housing tenants on housing benefit are living in accommodation which is too big for their needs, in spite of the fact of severe overcrowding. We are stopping the practice of the state paying for rooms beyond claimant needs, and that should go in some way to help tackle the social housing shortage that has been blighting too many lives.’  Read more on Inside Housing.