Should Social Landlords Pass On The Bedroom Tax To Tenants?

The idea of social landlords reducing rents by universally reclassifying their properties against those hit by the bedroom tax may seem absurd, but let's do the maths.  We already know there aren't enough alternative one-bedroom properties for the 400,000 who qualify for them; there are only 60,000 relets of existing one bedroom properties each year.  Even if all one bedroom homes we have were only allocated to underoccupiers from now on, some would wait for seven years while being charged as much as £25 extra a week from an income of as little as £75. Add on council tax, utilities and existing debts, and it becomes an impossible, unaffordable situation for many.  The impact will be worst in the north of England, hit by higher levels of underoccupation and by other benefit cuts such as changes to employment and support allowance, tax credits, incapacity benefit and council tax. Recent estimates suggest that working age households will face an additional £4.50 a week in council tax, while across the north east of England 50,000 underoccupiers will need to pay an additional £30m a year in rent. The government's discretionary housing payment (DHP) fund stands at £1.25m, leaving a shortfall of at least £28m in help available for underoccupiers.  This won't improve much even when a promised DHP increase kicks in next year. Durham county council has estimated the impact of welfare reform as a whole on the local economy in 2013 at £150m, worse in following years. That's £150m less going into local pockets, businesses and services when it already has the highest worklessness and the lowest job creation rates in the country.  Read more of this opinion piece on the Guardian website.