According to Sweet & Maxwell,(legal information providers),
tenant evictions by landlords have risen to 36,177 for the year June
2012 to June 2013. This is the highest in 5 years, an increase of 9%
on the previous year. We all accept that the governments “bedroom
tax” has pushed already struggling tenants over the edge and must
be blamed for most of this increase. Of course we should not
forget the last few years of enforced austerity measures had already
taken thousands to the brink of financial collapse and ever closer to
that eviction. As Daniel Dover, co-author of Residential Possession
Proceedings, has been quoted as saying, “Rising rents on
residential property and falling real wages are trends that have been
in place for a number of years, and have stretched the finances of an
increasing number of tenants to breaking point.”
Campaign group False Economy, through a
Freedom of Information request, received figures from 114 local
authorities, indicating that because of the “bedroom tax”, a
minimum of 50,000 are adversely affect and facing rent arrears
problems. You can add to that number by approximately 30,000 tenants
in housing association property.
Recently a much smaller survey,
found that one household in four, 25%, affected by the “bedroom
tax” have found themselves facing rent arrears for the first time.
According to the National Housing Federation, just over 50% of 63,578
tenants from 51 housing associations were unable to meet their rent
payments in the first few months of the introduction of this tax. The
worst affected area being Barrow in Cumbria, where more that 75% of
all council tenants have fallen into rent arrears since the
introduction of this brutal tax. Other areas are showing figures of
around 50%. That is a lot of anxiety, stress and misery.
We are not alone in seeing this tax on the poor as unfair, brutal
and unacceptable, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on housing
Raquel Rolnik has called for a rethink on the policy after finding
the reform was causing “great stress and anxiety” to “very
vulnerable” people.
Will rent arrears, the ensuing poverty, and the actual and
threatening evictions, be the spark that will light the fire? The
fire is inevitable, as sparks are flying everywhere, ATOS, workfare,
zero hours contracts, decimated social services, continuing austerity in the midst of arrogant
wealth, and a government that is no more than a thin mask for blatant
corporate greed.
