Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas and Brighton and Hove City Council's Chair of Housing have announced their intention that no city council tenant should be evicted from their home  because they cannot afford to pay the bedroom tax.

Brighton & Hove is the first city in the country to see such a declaration ahead of the introduction of the controversial new tax in April.

Councillor Liz Wakefield, Chair of Housing, said:

"The so-called 'spare room subsidy' is yet more immoral and harmful legislation from this morality-free coalition government.

"As Greens, we cannot throw people out onto the streets just because they're unable to pay it.

"I will therefore be bringing proposals that seek to ensure no household will be evicted from a Brighton and Hove City Council-owned home as a result of 'spare room subsidy' rent arrears accrued solely from that household's inability to pay this unjust tax."

She added:

"To ensure that people don't take advantage under these proposals, the housing department would still be able to use all the other methods open to it to collect arrears, and officers would have to be satisfied that tenants are doing all they reasonably can to pay."

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, who has called for the tax to be dropped, said:

"The so-called 'bedroom tax' is not only morally wrong and a cause of great potential hardship, it is also unworkable in a city with a long waiting list for smaller properties.

"The Council cannot downsize households on the scale required by the government, nor would we want it to.

"We should not be prepared to evict hard-pressed families, the disabled and other vulnerable people purely because they are unable to pay this unjust levy on a home they either cannot or should not have to leave."

Chair of Brighton & Hove Green Party, Rob Shepherd, said:

"This government is willing to see people thrown out onto the streets purely because they can't pay their bedroom tax.

"They can be sentenced to homelessness simply for trying to maintain a normal, liveable family home.

"The Conservative and LibDem coalition government should be ashamed of itself and, as Greens, we will have no part of it.

"I congratulate the party and councillors who are taking such a principled stand - and we call on the other parties to support us in protecting, in this way, some of our most vulnerable residents."

Councillor Wakefield has said she hopes to bring proposals to the next housing committee on May 8th, 2013.

Caroline Lucas MP has been at the forefront of opposition to the bedroom tax in Parliament, calling it a "cruel and counterproductive measure from a Government that is intent on punishing the poor".

Together with the SNP and Plaid Cymru, she chose to focus on the measure for an important Opposition Day debate in the House of Commons.

Caroline added: "There is no evidence that all this will save the Government money, but what it will do is lead to mass evictions and homelessness, and all the related problems that brings to our communities."

ENDS