Preston’s bedroom tax problem will take at least 18 years to sort out, councillors have been told.
A new report on the impact of welfare reforms in the city says it will take a generation to re-house all tenants hit by the Government’s “under occupancy” levy and wanting to downsize to two-bedroomed accommodation, the Lancashire Evening Post has reported.
“It is a very depressing picture,” said former city Mayor Bhikhu Patel, chairman of the Communities Scrutiny Panel which compiled the report after a thorough eight-month investigation into how changes to the benefits system are hitting Preston.
“A lot of people are affected and more and more are getting into debt.”
The report, presented to the council’s cabinet, reveals no-one has so far been made homeless for rent arrears caused by the bedroom tax.
But it warns that as the controversial policy begins to bite “tenant evictions may be necessary”.
Coun Patel said: “The homelessness issue has not come to the fore yet, but it is very early days.”
The report shows that after talks with the city’s housing association, Community Gateway: “It would take 18 years for CGA to re-house everyone who only required two bedrooms as a result of the under occupancy rule.”
The multi-agency investigation was commissioned in April when the city council expressed concern at the changes to the welfare benefits system being introduced by the Government.
Councillors wanted to devise a strategy to tackle issues arising from it, including homelessness. Figures show that Preston is now receiving an average of 100 new housing benefit claims every week.
On council tax arrears the report reveals that at the end of September, the council issued more than 9,000 first reminders to late payers and 3,134 summonses for non-payment – both up on the same period last year.
The council already has a range of initiatives in place to help alleviate suffering and is working towards the setting up of a credit union in Preston, although that is unlikely to be launched before spring 2015.