The 'bedroom tax' remains a topic of intense debate and public interest. Recently we saw the first tribunal decisions relating to bedroom tax appeals by tenants and we have had the astonishing sight of a United Nations "rapporteur" visiting Britain and suggesting that the bedroom tax may breach human rights.

A large protest also took place outside the Liberal Democrat party's Scottish Conference and Baroness Shirley Williams admitted to the conference that this policy was a "mistake".

The tribunal decisions were issued in Kirkcaldy where

Funny how you can stomach a rotten meal if you keep telling yourself it's not actually that bad. As the first witnesses to the Bedroom Tax Inquiry being held by the UK Parliament's Scottish Affairs Committee last week, the SFHA's Mary Taylor and I couldn't quite be sure what the Committee's approach would be. With five Labour MPs, three Conservatives and two Liberal Democrats, would views stick to party lines, and in some cases did we even know what those lines were?

Well, it's good

Tenant eviction and the bedroom tax (or the 'spare room subsidy' if you're a cabinet minister!) continue to dominate conversation in the housing world.

My blog last month put forward some ideas to minimise the impact of the changes to Housing Benefit which are now just two weeks away.

It also seems that the UK government are starting to get cold feet. Yesterday Iain Duncan Smith, the current Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, announced that guidance will be issued that will exempt foster

Our previous blog looked at the forthcoming bedroom tax impact on housing associations and offered some suggestions on minimising its impact.

Glasgow Advice Agency, an organisation which provides welfare rights and advice services across the South and North East of Glasgow, have recently obtained and published an opinion from Jonathan Mitchell, Q.C. 

In this blog, I will look at arguments that rooms of certain sizes should be left out of account.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 contains provisions which relate to overcrowding.

The 'space standard'

There cannot be a single housing association which is not aware of forthcoming changes to housing benefit and the impact of the bedroom tax. These changes will see reductions in housing benefit to tenants who are deemed to be over-occupying. New rules will set out:

- The number of bedrooms which will be eligible for benefit

- If a tenant has one spare bedroom, then 14% of their benefit will be removed

- If they have two or more spare bedrooms, then their benefit will

The UK Government's Welfare Reform Bill will introduce a bedroom tax which will reduce the amount of housing benefit support that can be given to tenants in the social rented sector by introducing new criteria for working-age housing benefit claimants who have extra bedrooms.

People who are judged to be "under occupying" their home by one bedroom will have their housing benefit cut by 14 per cent. Where tenants are under occupying by two or more bedrooms the deductions will be 25 per cent.

The