Resolution to #Scotlab13

The Contemporary Resolution submitted by Skye Lochaber and Badenoch CLP has been accepted  by the Conference Arrangements Commitee and will be debated as part of a composite at Conference in Eden Court this afternoon.   John Erskine has been asked to move it.  

This conference believes that the Bedroom Tax is morally wrong, socially unfair and makes no economic sense.


100,000 tenants in Scotland will be hit by the bedroom tax, 40,000 face rent arrears and thousands could be made homeless. It asks the disabled, single parents, carers, the terminally ill and parents with more than one foster child to pay the price for the mistakes of the banking system, whilst millionaires work out how to spend their tax cut.

Figures released in March revealed that 27% of children in Inverness Central are living in poverty. This figure is already a disgrace and the introduction of the welfare reform bill and its Bedroom tax will only see this figure increase. Across the Highlands an estimated £1.5m will be cut from local incomes. Labour supports sensible welfare reform but the bedroom tax is economic madness. In the Highland Council area, there are just 340 single bedroom homes in social ownership, whilst some 3,400 households will be expected to find smaller houses or pay more in rent. All the Bedroom Tax will achieve is making some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in our society even poorer. The inevitable rent arrears will lead to more pressure on local authority budgets, not less.

In response to this savage and unfair cut to the incomes of so many working people, this conference resolves that the Scottish Labour Party should:

• call on the Scottish government to use its devolved powers to fund the shortfall in housing benefit and rental incomes that will arise from this misplaced policy

• work with Councils and Housing Associations across Scotland to ensure that Scottish tenants are not forced into debt and arrears by this unfair policy

• work with the UK Party to ensure that our manifesto for 2015 proposes a fair benefit system that protects the vulnerable in our society and includes a commitment to repeal the Bedroom Tax legislation

• commit that the 2016 Scottish Labour manifesto will reiterate the Party’s commitment to social justice and will use all devolved powers to create a fairer society that puts the needs of our most vulnerable people to the fore.

Conference notes that the Liberal Democrats are complicit in supporting this awful policy. The SNP wring their hands but will not use their existing powers at Holyrood to make a difference for Scottish people. Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, holds the purse strings and is one of the chief architects. The voters of Inverness and the Highlands won’t forget who helped implement these cuts. Without the Liberal Democrats, none of these welfare reforms could happen.

The Scottish Labour Party needs to make clear whose side it is on.