Conservatives Risk Fresh Financial Volatility amid Housing Crisis

The Conservatives are sowing the seeds of a new financial crisis through their failure to tackle the housing problem, Nick Clegg has said as he calls for the "muscle of the state" to be used to help build up to 300,000 homes a year.  In an attack on the Treasury and the CLG, the deputy prime minister accused the Tories of having an ideological objection to intervening in the housing market to build more homes. Clegg made the comments as he came under pressure to change strategy and swing to the left after poor European and local election results. He said Mark Carney, the Bank of England governor, and Christine Lagarde, the director of the International Monetary Fund, were right to warn about the need for more housing in the UK. The Conservatives' failure to invest in housing was "unfair and economically unsustainable" and would create the seeds of the next financial crisis, he said. Watch a video (2 mins 40 secs) of the speech on the LibDem website. 

Bedroom Tax Protest Song Becomes Internet Hit

A Glasgow man's protest song against the bedroom tax has become an internet hit. Alan Smart's 'Ye Canny Have A Spare Room In A Pokey Cooncil Flat' has been viewed by nearly 150,000 people on YouTube within its first week.  Alan says he hopes the song can unify action against the government's under-occupancy policy, which came into force on April 1. Watch the video by clicking on the YouTube logo below.

MP Lives On £18 a Week to Say Bedroom Tax Unfair

Helen Goodman MP is launching a series of Youtube videos about life after the bedroom tax. From February 18th she has been living on a food budget of £18 a week and video-blogging about it each day. £18 a week is the amount some of her constituents will be left with to feed themselves after the introduction of the Bedroom Tax in April. Helen Goodman says “It is completely unfair of the Government to introduce a Bedroom tax on the most vulnerable on the same day that they are cutting taxes for Millionaires.” Read more on Helen Goodman’s website.

Welfare Changes: Explanatory Video

Barnet Homes - which manages 15,000 properties on behalf of Barnet Council - has produced a short film to explain the under-occupancy rules that will reduce housing benefit payments for hundreds of the borough's residents from April 1.  The film - 'Benefit changes: What you need to know' - sets out how the imminent bedroom tax will affect people and what options are available to them to cover any shortfall in their rent, such as advice on exchanging homes.  The film also covers the benefit cap and the advent of Universal Credit.  View the film on youtube by clicking on the Barnet Homes logo below.