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The First Minister, Alex Salmond MSP announced today that all SNP-led local authorities would embrace a 'no evictions for bedroom tax' policy, ensuring that where tenants were paying their rent but struggling to cope with the bedroom tax, they would not be evicted by their local authority landlord.This policy approach was first proposed in Scotland by Govan Law Centre, and our 'No evictions for bedroom tax' campaign has since been backed by a wide range of civic bodies in Scotland including the STUC, Oxfam, Shelter Scotland, tenants bodies, mental health charities and almost 5,000 signatures to our petition to the Scottish Parliament.
The SNP currently lead nine of Scotland's 32 local authorities although they only have a majority in one council, Dundee City Council, which has already implemented a 12 month 'No evictions for bedroom tax' policy.
GLC welcomes the First Minister's commitment to the 'No evictions for bedroom tax' campaign, but notes that the Scottish Government has the power to require all of Scotland's 32 local authorities and 183 registered social landlord housing associations and co-operatives to embrace the same policy which the First Minister has today embraced and approved.
GLC believes it would be grossly unfair for only some tenants to benefit from this policy in Scotland while others do not. We do not believe that a 'post-code bedroom tax eviction lottery' is in the Scottish public interest. We hope that the Scottish Government will embrace the need to ensure that all tenants in the social rented sector in Scotland benefit from a 'No evictions for bedroom tax' policy.
I gather Dundee has actually voted to allow the Director of Housing to use her discretion on evictions for arrears due to bedroom tax. They rejected Labour's proposal to support amending the Scottish Housing Regulations so evictions cannot take place due to arrears accumulated by the bedroom tax.
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