Labour secretary in vow to scrap 'bedroom tax'
Labour's shadow work and pensions secretary told carers of disabled people that abolishing the so-called 'bedroom tax' would be her first job if the party wins the General Election.
Rachel Reeves was making her second visit to Dudley in as many weeks as the countdown to the May election continues.
She knocked doors with the party's candidate in Dudley South, Natasha Millward, and said scrapping the cut in housing benefit for people in council or social housing with one or more spare rooms was a priority.
Miss Reeves said: "I heard some terrible stories from people who are having to pay more because of this.
"In many cases these are not spare rooms, they are rooms where medical equipment is stored. There are couples who for medical reasons are having to sleep in separate rooms, but they are treated as having a spare bedroom."
The cut was brought in to try to convince people with spare rooms to trade down to smaller properties and free up larger homes for families.
Miss Reeves said: "There simply aren't the homes available for people to move to.
"What we need to see is 200,000 new homes a year built to include affordable and social housing. That's how we get waiting lists down."
In the first 18 months since the bedroom tax came into force, 400 people renting through Wolverhampton Homes moved house. Just over half of those downsized to a council or housing association property. The rest moved into private rented accommodation or moved in with family and friends.
Around 200 council tenants across Sandwell have moved to smaller homes and around 350 in Dudley.
