2 March 2013
The February 2013 budget meeting of Lancaster City Council passed a proposal put forward
by Green councilor Chris Coates that the council should look at re classifying 2 and 3 bedroom council houses as smaller properties where extra rooms are not being used as bedrooms.
Scotforth West Councillor Chris Coates, said: “This is a pernicious tax that will fall on some of the most vulnerable families in the district, we need to look at all options we can to help people
affected by it. The retrospective nature of the tax makes it particularly unjust as people did not know about the limitation on benefit when they orginially took up the tenancy. Up to 600 households could be affected across the district."
The proposal asked for a report to be brought back to the council’s cabinet outlining the feasibility of changing the classification of council properties along the lines being done by other authorities and Housing Associations. The Council also agreed to write to the government expressing its opposition to the tax.
Lancaster’s support scheme will protect all council tax benefit claimants:
On January 16th Lancaster city council voted 33-13 to preserve council tax benefit levels for all claimants in the face of a cut in government funding for the benefit.The government’s cut to the grant for council tax benefit would have resulted in the poorest-paid and unemployed couples in Lancaster district having to find £232 each year (£4.45 per week) in council tax from April. Single people would have been £174 a year (£3.34 per week) worse off.
Green councillor Tim Hamilton-Cox, who was responsible for much of the research behind the motion, said:
"Green councillors have been insistent that extra revenue from extending the council tax levied on empty homes and second homes, added to a transitional grant from central government, could cover more than 87% of the lost grant and that we should use these funds to protect people already struggling with increasing food and energy bills. The residents who will be affected by the loss of council tax benefit are those on low incomes who are also likely to face
further cuts to their income as a direct result of the government’s wider welfare reform programme."
Further information here
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