Downsizing Tenants Offered Rent Holiday

An Essex Council has decided to go ahead with its plan to offer under-occupying tenants a rent holiday if they move to smaller properties.  Thurrock Council agreed the move as part of its new allocations policy in an attempt to alleviate the impact of the government’s bedroom tax.  Val Morris-Cook, portfolio holder for housing, said: ‘I am really pleased to see the issue of downsizing is now taken into account. We are still looking at exactly what the benefits could be for moving out of a large home into a smaller, more suitable one, but one of them will be a “live rent-free” for a specific time which we have yet to decide.’  Read more on the Thurrock Council website.