Bedroom tax is yet another attack on the poor and vulnerable. People in Social Housing on any kind of benefit, with a spare bedroom will have received letters informing them that they will have to pay a levy for unoccupied bedrooms.  This tax should not be levied against anyone who is willing to move to a smaller property, especially seeing that our Council has no smaller properties to offer. The only answer is for the Council to increase the stock of smaller properties thus helping the homeless and those in dire need for social housing. This would allow people to downsize while providing much needed work for local construction workers, and at the same time drive down the high cost of renting in the private sector, landlords would have to compete with the affordable council house rents.  How can council tenants be penalised for living in a property that is bigger than they need, when there is no alternative accommodation for them to downsize available.
The Government has created this problem with social housing by selling off properties to tenants, and not using the revenue received to build additional housing stock.  For anyone that needs help to meet the Bedroom tax you can apply to the Council for a discretionary housing payment, see link below. http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/housing_benefit_and_local_housing_allowance/discretionary_housing_payments