Closed petition Under occupancy

Closed on 30 March 2015

The councils and housing associations need to downsize tenants into appropriate accommodation themselves rather than telling tenants their only option is the mutual exchange.
The mutual exchange (home-swap) method is very time consuming and a lot of people have been trying to swap for a number of years whilst living in overcrowded housing.
There are a large number of people still living in the 3/4/5 bedroom houses when their children have all left home.
The bedroom tax isn't working to encourage people to leave their under occupied properties as some are still receiving the discretionary payment and the 14-25% bedroom tax doesn't appear to be having an impact on the tenants' income.
In the current situation, someone could live alone in a 4 bedroom house for as long as they want as long as they are paying the rent, this is totally unjust to the thousands who are living in overcrowded housing.