FROM this month, the country's poorest working-age adults in
social housing who are deemed to have a "spare" bedroom, will have
their housing benefit cut. The measure, contained in the new
Welfare Reform Act, has been dubbed by some a "bedroom tax".
The definition of what constitutes "spare" is tenuous. It will
hit couples who need separate bedrooms when recovering from
frequent illness, or because of disability. It will hit separated
parents who share the care of their children, and may need an extra
bedroom when their children stay. It will hurt disabled people
living in specially adapted and designed properties.
Of the 660,000 people affected, about 100,000 live in homes
specially adapted for disability, the National Housing Federation
says. It also estimates that 230,000 people in receipt of
disability living allowance will be affected. Those on housing
benefit include many who are struggling in minimum-wage jobs. The
average cut will be about £15 per week - enough to send some into
debt and arrears, and leave them facing eviction.
The recent public challenge to the Government over its welfare
reforms by Church of England bishops - including the Archbishop of
Canterbury - was, therefore, extremely welcome (
News, 15 March). It would have been stronger, of course, if the
Church Commissioners had not pursued a policy of selling their
social housing over the past 20 years, investing instead in
out-of-town shopping centres. The Church would have had more
authority if it had been speaking from an unequivocal commitment to
social housing.
Like other Churches, however, the Church of England does still
have an involvement in social housing through housing associations
and other associated bodies. The English Churches Housing Group,
for example, is one of the country's largest housing associations,
providing homes for more than 18,000 people. This gives the Church
a chance to fight back - as other bodies in the sector are already
demonstrating.
Knowsley Housing Trust has reclassified nearly 600 family homes
as "smaller properties", and has dropped the number of bedrooms
they are deemed to have. This will exempt tenants from having their
housing benefit reduced. Elsewhere, Brighton & Hove Council, in
which the Greens are the largest party, has become the first local
authority in England to say that it will not pursue evictions of
those who fall into arrears as a result of the benefit cut.
The Church should also look at the longer-term action that it
might take. As local authorities are finding, the new scheme is
almost unworkable. There simply are not enough smaller properties
for tenants to downsize to, even if they did want to ditch their
"spare" bedroom.
But, as Housing Justice's 2009 report Faith in Affordable Housing (in which the
Church of England was a partner) suggested, many churches own land
and property, which includes under-used and redundant assets: this
might be glebe land, flats, houses, church halls, and other
premises. In some cases, they could become a source of income, as
well as of social benefit. As many churches have found, it often
helps to develop partnerships with housing associations, which have
expertise that can help make things happen.
This is a time to be both politically and practically subversive
in the face of what the Bishops rightly observed is a growing
political consensus that is hurting the most vulnerable. All of the
main parties in the UK, including Labour, support the cut in
housing benefit. Labour has said that it would not reverse it - or,
indeed, most of the other welfare reforms - should it gain power at
the next election. In the face of such consensus, new social
housing could become a central weapon in the Church's fight to
protect the poorest.
Jonathan Bartley is director of the theological think tank
Ekklesia.