Bedroom Tax Loophole

Social housing tenants can avoid the hated Bedroom Tax by using their spare room to set up a business. Then they won’t have to pay an extra £14 a week because they can prove they are using extra bedrooms, the Sunday People reports. Amazingly the loophole was revealed by a Government spokesman in the House of Lords. Earl Attlee, who is a Tory despite being grandson of Labour post-war PM Clem Attlee, said: “The spare room subsidy encourages people to make full use of their property and to ­consider running a small business. I think that is highly desirable.” Read more on the Sunday People website.

Social Rented Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for CLG what assessment has been made of the likely effects on incentives to gain employment of reviewing social tenancies when tenants' circumstances change?
Andrew Stunell: In 2008-09 only 49% of social rented tenants of working age were in work. We need to take action to address the high levels of worklessness in the social rented sector. We have recently pledged to introduce a national social home swap programme to make it easier for social tenants to move to another home or another part of the country, increasing their opportunities to find work. We also plan to make it easier for social tenants to work from home and start up home businesses.

Minister Launches New CIH Guidance on Home Enterprise

New guidance for social landlords highlights the advantages of encouraging tenants to run a business from home in order to boost their employment prospects. The guidance, produced by the Chartered Institute of Housing has been launched by Grant Shapps MP (Housing Minister) at a Small Business Summit. Grant Shapps MP said: "I want all social tenants with the ambition, drive and vision to set up their own businesses to be given all the help they need to do so. Tenants should have the same opportunities as anyone else, and landlords have the key to unlocking this untapped entrepreneurial talent. I want them to get the message out loud and clear to their residents that wherever possible, and in the majority of cases, they will be able to set up and run their new businesses from home.” CIH guidance 'Running a Business from Home' can be downloaded from the CIH website.