On Thursday 21st March, Kidsgrove Town Council voted overwhelmingly to damn The Bedroom Tax that is due to come into effect on the 1st April 2013.  The controlling Labour group put forward a motion that was supported by the majority of parties on the council.  Many councillors spoke of how unfair the new system would be and how so many people will be struggling to make ends meet.  Councillor John Taylor seconded the motion and spoke of how people in Butt Lane and the surrounding area will struggle to pay their bills whilst the Tories give millionaires tax cuts.  Below is a copy of the motion that was passed by the council:

This Council notes that:

The Coalition government’s bedroom tax will bring disastrous consequences to the country and to Kidsgrove specifically.

·        Two thirds of the households hit are home to someone with a disability

·        Weekend mums and dads will have to try and find additional money to enable their   children to stay with them.

Further, the policy is being introduced at the same time that millionaires are being given a tax break of £100,000 per year.

This Council believes that:

It is not fair to residents in social housing that they should be financially penalized on the basis of the house in which they have made their home and in circumstances which they are confronted through no fault of their own.

That it is cynical and shameful for the Coalition government to deliberately implement a policy that it knows cannot possibly lead to the desired outcomes of that policy – namely that people should be forced to downsize their homes on the basis of financial penalty when there is not sufficient stock of housing to permit such downsizing.

This Council resolves that:

The clerk should write to the Secretary of State to condemn the bedroom tax and its impact on residents in Kidsgrove, Ravescliffe, Butt Lane, Talke and Newchapel.

That the Council will publish detailed statistics of the impact of the policy on residents of the town once the tax has been implemented.

Kidsgrove Town Councillors stand up for social housing tenants.