Emma Reynolds, Labour MP for Wolverhampton North East and Shadow Housing Minister, has today voted in support of a private member’s bill on Friday 5 September which will exempt some people from paying the bedroom tax.Andrew George MP’s bill which passed its second reading today by a majority of 75, exempts those who are not offered alternative housing or where disabled adaptations have been completed from having to pay the bedroom tax. However, Emma would like the bill to be amended to scrap the bedroom tax altogether.

According to the National Housing Federation, since it was introduced, the bedroom tax has hit over 660,000 people across the country including over 400,000 disabled people and 60,000 carers, meaning that the tax is hitting some of the most vulnerable people in our society.Emma said, “The bedroom tax is cruel and unfair. It is causing hardship for an estimated 1,419 people in my constituency and over 4000 people across Wolverhampton. Families are losing, on average, £720 a year and research from the BBC, earlier this year, showed that more than one in four people affected have fallen into arrears for the first time and that only 6% of those affected have been able to relocate.

“Many families with a disabled child, sibling or parent live in specially adapted housing. Not only is the bedroom tax causing great financial hardship and anxiety, it also simply doesn’t make sense for these families to move to a new home that needs costly adaption.

“However the government try to spin it, the bedroom tax is an ill-conceived and pernicious policy.

“I am pleased that Tory MPs who support the bedroom tax were defeated in their attempts to stop this Bill. However the Bill only aims to reduce the impact of the bedroom tax. The Labour Party would go much further and seek to amend the Bill to scrap the bedroom tax altogether. Indeed Labour is the only major party committed to scrapping the bedroom tax if we win the next election.”

September 2014