There are fears that as many as 50,000 North East families are going to be affected by the ‘bedroom tax’. Figures from the NHF (National Housing Federation) highlight that housing associations across the North East do not have enough of the right-sized properties for the thousands of tenants who will fall foul of the new regulations.
One housing association alone estimates that 2,800 of its tenants will be classed as under-occupying their homes and they have only sixteen spare one-bed properties to move them to. This has seen a plea go out to all private landlords who have empty properties, to come forward and help with the situation. Local councils throughout the borough want as many of these properties as possible to be protected with a landlord insurance quote and used to house the affected tenants. The new under-occupation rules will not start until April next year, but when they are introduced tenants will have a choice of staying where they are only if they pay on average, an extra £40 each month if they have one spare room or £70 each month if they have two spare rooms.
Monica Burns, North East manager for the National Housing Federation, said “These new rules are futile and unfair. Housing associations in the North East have always been encouraged by Government to build bigger homes so families could live in the same homes for life and didn’t have to move when they had children. And as land was cheaper here that made good sense. Now those same tenants and housing associations are being penalised for having the wrong type of house. Many families on benefits will have no choice but to up sticks and move to private rented accommodation. The Government will then have to pay a higher rate of housing benefit to cover their rents for smaller homes.”
Even a household where each bedroom is in use could be hit with benefit cuts, because under the new rules children will be expected to share a bedroom up to the age of sixteen. Research estimates that 690,000 households in the United Kingdom will be hit by the new rules.