Housing Association Knocks Down Walls To Battle The Bedroom Tax

A Liverpool housing group has been knocking down walls to provide smaller homes for people who cannot afford the bedroom tax. Cobalt Housing say that, since the tax, demand for many of their houses has dropped. As 70% of their 6,000 properties are three-bedrooms, they are now converting these to two-bedroom houses to fill empty properties. Managing director, Alan Rogers, told the ECHO they were struggling as people couldn’t afford houses or didn’t qualify, as children under 10 were expected to share rooms. The conversions cost £700–£800 and this figure is expected to rise to £1,300 next year alongside other improvement works. Read more on the Liverpool Echo website.