£1500 per family penalty for well run housing

The figure for how much money the Labour government are taking from our tenants is now in. This year the Council Tenants of Cambridge will be sending £12.1 million to Gordon Brown.

Thats £12.1 million that we can't spend on improving homes for people in the city, or on providing extra affordable housing in the city to reduce the waiting list, or even on maintenance of the housing stock. It could hit our plans to refurbish sheltered housing.

It works out at £1500 per household.

The argument goes that it is right to take money from rich areas to subsidise poorer, but this isn't what happens. The people being hit for this cash are not the wealthiest in Cambridge, or those most able to pay. This is a tax on being a council tenant, and those include some of the most vulnerable in our society. It includes those in sheltered housing.

I try to avoid posting when angry, but whenever I start to write about the"negative subsidy" I get angry: This is not a fair way to address issues in housing provision, and it damages the services that the city can provide.

The Liberal Democrat run City Council continues to campaign against it, as does David Howarth, our MP. As will your Liberal Democrat ward councillors.