The Lib Dems and the Bedroom Tax – why they’re hypocrites

Nick Clegg’s comments on the Bedroom Tax this morning shows staggering hypocrisy. The Lib Dems have spent the last three years supporting the Bedroom Tax; if it wasn’t for the Lib Dems there would be no Bedroom Tax. But today they are attempting to convince the public they now have doubts about the policy, which has forced thousands of people to food banks and caused hardship for thousands more.

Nick Clegg was warned repeatedly about damaging effects of the Bedroom Tax by charities and housing associations. But time and time again his party voted for it with their Tory chums. Nick Clegg was given a series of opportunities to scrap it. But instead of doing the right thing and voting to repeal this cruel tax, which has hit hundreds of thousands of disabled people, he defended the policy.

Today, Nick Clegg told LBC that ‘I’m an old-fashioned person when it comes to policy, I think you should be led by the evidence’.   But the evidence has long been there that the Bedroom Tax would cause hardship for tenants, and wouldn’t help tackle overcrowding, and the Lib Dems ignored repeated warnings, even and from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)  itself, about its damaging impact.

The DWP’s own impact assessment of the Bedroom Tax told them that there was a ‘mismatch’ between the number of people who wanted to move and the number of properties available for them to move to. It said that ‘In many areas this mismatch could mean that there are insufficient properties to enable tenants to move to accommodation of an appropriate size even if tenants wished to move and landlords were able to facilitate this movement.They can’t pretend they weren’t told. They always knew.

Back in 2011 a coalition of four housing associations warned of the damaging effects of the Bedroom Tax. Their survey found 52% would find it “very difficult” or “fairly difficult” to make up the shortfall in housing benefit and more than a third of those surveyed said that they were “very likely” or “quite likely” to move into arrears.

On 20th November 2013, homeless charities including Shelter, as well as the Church in Wales, spoke out against the Bedroom Tax. Shelter warned that there had been an increase in tenants falling behind in rent payments. And Community Housing Cymru said nearly 80% of people receiving housing benefit were falling behind their rent payments and 800 homes were  empty because of the Bedroom Tax.

The National Housing Federation warned on 12th February this year  that ‘Two thirds of households affected by the bedroom tax cannot find the money to pay their rents’.

The Lib Dems even ignored warnings from Danny Alexander’s father  who criticised the policy at the end of last year and from Norman Tebbit in March of this year, who  joined critics of the Bedroom Tax, saying ‘we introduced that rather without thinking it through very well, and I think that’s costing us.’

And whenever the Lib Dems have had the chance to scrap the Bedroom Tax they’ve refused.

In 2011 the Lib Dem Lords voted against an amendment to do what Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander are proposing today, to only apply the Bedroom Tax to those who have refused an offer of suitable accommodation.

On 12th November 2013 Labour called an Opposition Day debate on the Bedroom Tax. We outlined the damage the Bedroom Tax was doing to  400,000 disabled people, their families and carers, and the  children who have been forced out of their homes or pushed deeper into poverty and debt. The Lib Dems could have voted with Labour to abolish the Bedroom Tax but they didn’t. Instead, led by Lib Dem pensions minister, Steve Webb, they joined with Tory MPs to defeat the motion by 252 to 226 votes. Webb wholeheartedly backed the Bedroom Tax saying he ‘welcomes the potential beneficial impact of this policy’.

On 13th February 2013 Nick Clegg defended the policy in the House of Commons during Prime Minister’s Question time boasting of the ‘tough decision’ he took to support the Bedroom Tax. And a month later on 12th March 2014 in the House of Commons Harriet Harman challenged Nick Clegg to say whether the Lib Dems ‘are for the Bedroom Tax or against it’. Clegg defended it.

On 3rd April 2014 Lib Dem peers voted to back the Bedroom Tax. Their opposition to a Labour motion ensured there was a government majority of 15 in the House of Lords in support of the Bedroom Tax.

So, Nick Clegg ignored repeated warnings about the impact of the Bedroom Tax he and his party voted to impose on the country. And whenever Labour has tabled motions in Parliament giving the Lib Dems the chance to scrap this cruel and unfair levy they’ve refused to act.

Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander’s comments today will be meaningless to the thousands of people suffering because of their Bedroom Tax unless they vote to scrap the cruel levy. If the Lib Dems want to do the right thing they should join with Labour when we call a vote in Parliament. But from a party that promised to oppose a rise in tuition fees and then voted to treble tuition fees we’re not holding our breath. If they won’t support our attempts to scrap the Bedroom Tax in Parliament this year a Labour government will abolish this cruel and unfair levy next year.

Rachel Reeves is Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions