Sheila Gilmore: You'll have nothing to spare

IS a spare room a luxury? The answer is 'yes', according to government minister Lord Freud, if you are a council or housing association tenant.

Under proposed new government rules, working-age tenants living in houses deemed too big should move to ease the shortage of affordable housing. If they don't or can't and need housing benefit to help pay the rent, their benefit will be cut - 11 per week on average for those with one 'spare' room.

The proposals are primarily a cost-saving exercise disguised as fairness to overcrowded families and a solution to a housing crisis. They are in fact neither fair nor a solution.

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These are people's homes. A spare room means couples with health problems can sleep apart, grandchildren can sleep over, or relatives visit.

Such proposals coming from people who probably have several spare rooms is particularly unacceptable. It's just tough luck if you happen to be poor, whether in or out of work.

There are very real practical objections too. Some tenants want to downsize. However, most want to stay in the area where they have family, friends or work. Finding smaller housing is hard. In many areas of Edinburgh, the highest turnover of one-bedroomed houses is in sheltered housing or flats, especially high-rise blocks.

What about those in adapted homes or whose disability means they need space for equipment or a carer to stay? Labour members of the Bill committee asked the minister that these groups be exempted, but he gave no commitment.

This government wants to make welfare something for the very poorest and most vulnerable, not a social contract between citizen and state.

If you are unlucky enough to lose your job through redundancy or illness, needing to claim housing benefit, beware: government ministers may take away your spare room.

• Sheila Gilmore is Labour MP for Edinburgh East

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