Cap on rents would cut bill (From South Wales Argus)

Cap on rents would cut bill

3:23pm Monday 18th March 2013 in Letters

CAN Bron Afon CHM tenants who are being penalised by the ‘bedroom’ tax have an assurance from Duncan Forbes (chief executive) that they will not be evicted from their homes or transferred to private landlords?

Tenants who are unemployed or earn low wages and receive Housing Benefit are the victims of a Tory-led class war which is purely ideological in character. (The poor must be made to pay the price of the bankers’ bail-out and bonuses, not to mention the profits of greedy corporations whose low-wage economic strategy caused the recession in the first place!) Of course the “problem” of Housing Benefit can be easily solved by: (1). Paying workers a “living wage” (at least £10 per hour). (2). Putting a cap on social/private landlords’ rent. (Why should private landlords profit from public subsidies, which Housing Benefit actually is?) As Bron Afon CHM has increased our rent by 3+% this year, in a time of economic hardship, I wonder exactly how this is being sensitive to the needs of the tenants. Isn’t this adding to “taking people below the survival level?”

Terry Banfield Cardigan Crescent Cwmbran