Council Tackles Bedroom Tax With Semantic Solution

Leeds council has come up with a novel way of sidestepping the controversial bedroom tax: reclassifying more than 800 "spare" rooms in its social homes as "non-specific rooms".  The creative wordplay means tenants in affected properties are not classed as underoccupying their homes and do not have to pay a surcharge as a result.   Councillor Peter Gruen said it would cost the council more to evict tenants and rehouse them than it would to simply accept that many could not pay for the underoccupation charge.  Council officials had inspected the housing stock and reclassified any unoccupied ground floor bedrooms as non-specific as well as very small bedrooms, or those which acted as a thoroughfare to another room. He said he hoped that all "fair-minded politicians" across the country would implement the same changes.

Read more on the Guardian website.