Freud: Bedroom Tax Figures 'May Indicate People Are Downsizing'

The lower than expected number of people hit by the bedroom tax may be due to people downsizing into smaller properties, Lord David Freud has claimed. The welfare reform minister has defended the controversial policy saying : ‘The numbers are down from 660,000 to 523,000 which…may indicate some behaviour trip-change as people move to smaller places where they can.’

Baroness Hollis said: ‘Does the minister really think it is fair to sanction existing tenants for misbehaviour when they have not misbehaved and when they cannot change their behaviour?’ Lord Freud responded by ‘the removal of the spare room subsidy is not a sanction’. Read more on Inside Housing.

Freud Says Bedroom Tax Term Is Misleading... Then Calls It Bedroom Tax Himself

Bungling Lord Freud has put his foot in his mouth again to become the first Tory minister to call the Bedroom Tax “the Bedroom Tax”. Lord Freud’s gaffe came just minutes after he mocked ­another peer for using the term.  He told Labour’s Baroness Hollis: “I must make the point that while the party opposite likes to use the expression “Bedroom Tax” it is deeply misleading.”  Shadow work and pensions minister Maeve Sherlock suggested ministers were now referring to the spare-room ­subsidy as “Lord Freud’s idea” to distance themselves from it. Lord Freud replied: “A good idea has many fathers. Clearly everyone in this Government is responsible for the Bedroom Tax and I am one of them.” Read more on the Daily Mirror website.