Bedroom tax: legal fight ‘not over’

The former housing minister made the claim that British courts had approved the government’s spare room subsidy, in a letter of complaint to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over the conduct of Raquel Rolnik, the organisation’s special rapporteur on adequate housing.

The Brazilian academic has annoyed ministers by calling for the policy – which cuts housing benefit for social housing tenants deemed to have more bedrooms than they need – to be suspended.

In his letter, Mr Shapps accused Ms Rolnik, a former planning minister for Brazil’s centre-left Workers’ Party, of showing political bias.

Ms Rolnik posed for a photograph in the Daily Record, the Scottish newspaper which has campaigned against the policy.

And she has repeatedly referred to the policy as the “bedroom tax” – a term favoured by opponents. The government prefers to talk about ending a “spare room subsidy”.

Mr Shapps wrote: “The United Kingdom’s legal system has already ruled that the abolition of the spare room subsidy is lawful. I am therefore extremely surprised and disappointed to learn that the UN has directly contradicted the decisions of our courts.”

The remark was a reference to a High Court judgment in July in which judges threw out a challenge to the policy by a group of disabled adults and children who claimed it was discriminatory. The court found that the new housing benefit rules were discriminatory, but in the case of adults the discrimination was justified and therefore lawful.

Our clients are really suffering from the imposition of the ‘bedroom tax’, though, so we are pushing ahead now – Liberty

But the judges urged the government to comply with an earlier ruling that the law must be changed to provide for disabled children. There must be “no deduction of housing benefit where an extra bedroom is required for children who are unable to share because of their disabilities”.

Lawyers representing the disabled claimants hailed the ruling on children as a partial victory and they are appealing against the ruling on adults.

One of the firms of solicitors involved, Hopkin Murray Beskine, is also mounting a legal challenge on behalf of a victim of domestic violence known only as Ms A.

The woman had her home adapted under a scheme for victims of domestic abuse, and says she would be placed at risk if she had to move.

Right to family life

Liberty told Channel 4 News it is seeking a judicial review based on the impact of the policy on separated parents who share custody of their children. Campaigners say the changes could prevent parents from spending time with their children, a potential breach of human rights.

The civil liberties campaign group is representing two fathers and a mother who fear their children will not be able to visit them if they are forced to move to a property with no spare bedrooms.

In a public meeting held by Ms Rolnik in Manchester, a man in a similar position said his right to a family life would be affected if he was forced to move.

“Our claim was on hold pending the outcome of the disability cases,” Liberty told Channel 4 News. “Our clients are really suffering from the imposition of the ‘bedroom tax’, though, so we are pushing ahead now.

“The secretary of state is due to provide their response to our claim by September 20, after which the court will make a decision on permission.”

The government says ending the “spare room subsidy” will save about £500m a year and will bring the social rented sector in line with the private rented sector, where housing benefit claims do not get spare rooms for free.

An additional £25m a year in will be available from 2013/14 to help disabled people who living in significantly adapted housing stay in their homes.

Who is the ‘woman from Brazil’?

Mr Shapps is not the first politician to express annoyance at the arrival of the UN special rapporteur on adequate housing, a professor of architecture and an expert on urban planning.

Ms Rolnik has been an outspoken critic of forced evictions across the developing world, and has criticised the Brazilian government over the impact of its bids to host the World Cup and Olympic Games on housing for the country’s urban poor.

In 2009 she toured the United States, holding meetings in town halls where people affected by the sub-prime mortgage crisis complained of their housing problems.

Asked why she was concentrating her efforts on such a prosperous nation, Ms Rolnik said: “This country is exporting its financial model to all parts of the world — a model that caters to rich developers, not the poor people, not the little people.

“Therefore, if you change the way that the United States does business, then you change the world. It’s bound to have a ripple effect. Besides that, there are people living in deplorable conditions right here in this nation — the richest country in the world.”

Such views provoked a hostile reaction from sections of the American media.

The Washington Times said: “She should go back from whence she came.” The New York Post noted Ms Rolnik’s regret at “the reduction of the role of the state in housing” and asked: “Gee, why not just declare capitalism itself a war crime – and be done with it?

Dale Farm

Ms Rolnik also weighed into British housing policy in 2011, when eviction orders were issued against travellers camped at Dale Farm in Essex.

She said at the time: “Evictions constitute a grave breach of human rights if not carried out with full respect for international standards.

“We urge the UK authorities to halt the evictions process and to pursue negotiations with the residents until an acceptable agreement for relocation is reached in full conformity with international human rights obligations.”

Ms Rolnik has denied arriving in Britain with a political agenda, but has made statements in the past that would appear to put her on an inevitable ideological collision course with the current government.

The coalition has preferred to ease the housing crisis by encouraging private buyers with schemes like Help to Buy, rather than investing heavily in social housing.

Back in 2008, Ms Rolnik said: “The belief that markets will provide adequate housing for all has failed…excessive focus on homeownership as the one and single solution is part of the problem.”