Islington Now can reveal that out of the 1186 council tenants affected by the bedroom tax, 310 have gone into arrears since the government reformed the benefits system. Only one in ten of those affected have downsized to a one bedroom property.
The number, revealed to this paper through Freedom of Information laws, excludes housing associations so there is the possibility that the figure could be much higher.
Emily Thornberry, Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury and shadow attorney general said: “I’m certainly in favour of people being in accommodation the size of their family and the local authority has been running a scheme whereby the will be providing assistance to people who want to downsize.
“They have the choice of the best properties, they give them money to help them move. These things have been around for a while and if the Tories really wanted to get people into appropriate accommodation they would put funding into schemes like that.
“But they don’t. That’s not what it’s really about. It’s about scapegoating people who live on benefits and basically blame them for the state that the country is in.”
Highlighting the need for housing across London, a spokesperson for Camden council said: “Most of the 26,500 applicants on the council’s housing register will not receive an allocation of housing at all as demand for social housing in the borough very considerably exceeds supply.”
Over the past year Islington council has evicted 40 tenants from council housing but none of these have been directly related to the tax. James Murray, Islington’s housing chief, pledged that people caught up in the policy will not be evicted from their properties if they have nowhere else to go.
A spokesperson for the Department of Work and Pensions said: “People affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy have a range of options available to them, including making up the difference in their rent or downsizing to a more suitable property.
“Even with the changes, we still pay the majority of most claimants’ rent, but it’s right we take action to get the growing Housing Benefit bill under control and bring fairness back to social housing.”
Emily Thornberry, Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury and shadow attorney general[insert],[/insert] said: “I’m certainly in favour of people being in accommodation the size of their family and the local authority has been running a scheme whereby the will be providing assistance to people who want to downsize.