SCOTLAND'S councils have launched an attack on Government minister David Mundell over the controversial "bedroom tax".
David O'Neill, president of local authorities' umbrella body Cosla, said councils across the country had deep concerns about cuts to housing benefit which, he warned, were likely to force tenants to leave communities where they have lived for years.
In a strongly worded letter, he accused Mr Mundell of misrepresenting Cosla during exchanges at Westminster, when the Scotland Office minister claimed councils' had been "satisfied" by Government assurances on implementing the cuts.
The letter, sent yesterday, has been seen by The Herald. In it Mr O'Neill says he was "taken aback" by Mr Mundell's claim, in answer to a parliamentary question from Labour MP Anne McKechin last week, that councils' and housing associations' concerns were allayed following a meeting with benefits minister Lord David Freud in November.
He said Lord Freud's assurances had been "inadequate," adding: "Considerable dissatisfaction remained, and David Freud gave an undertaking to return to Scotland to discuss the matters further in February.
"This meeting has still not been confirmed. To me it is impossible to see how this can be portrayed as Cosla and Scottish local authorities concerns having been 'satisfied'."
He has demanded that Mr Mundell "set the record straight on these matters."
He said councils had deep concerns about the plans, which from April will cut housing benefit by 14% for tenants deemed to have a spare bedroom and 25% for those with two extra rooms.
Mr O'Neill added: "At a recent meeting of Cosla, all senior councillors responsible for council housing reported being approached by anxious tenants, some in tears over what they are going to have to go through.
"Some have held tenancies for decades and seem likely to be forced to leave their communities."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article