Bedroom tax campaigns gear up as Manchester and Salford march once more

Article published: Sunday, April 21st 2013

Manchester and Salford campaigners marched once more against the bedroom tax as demonstrators heard of growing anger at the government’s attack on welfare.

The Manchester and Salford marches joined forces in Albert Square before holding a demo in Piccadilly Gardens.

Turnout at 200 people was lower than the 1,000 marching on the same day across the Pennines in Leeds.

But speakers from Manchester, Salford and Bury highlighted local organisation in estates across Manchester.

Honor Donnelly from Wythenshawe told the crowd how bedroom tax and cuts to council tax benefit had affected her personally now that her children had grown and left the family home.

“I will have to pay £25 towards the bedroom tax and the new poll tax”, she said. “I’m left with £46.71 a week to pay bills, look for work, buy clothes, to see my children who don’t live in Manchester because they can’t get a job in Manchester.”

She added, “I left food off the list. Do you know what women do? They put the shoes on their kids’ feet. They buy the school uniform. They make sure Mum down the road is okay, so that might mean bus fare. They pay the bills and they feed themselves last.

“I know that because I’ve done it in the past when Maggie Thatcher made people unemployed in the 1980s and the 1990s.”

Wythenshawe Smash the Cuts

Sam Knowles, 23, explained how she had been hit by the tax. “I’m being stung for it”, she said, thanks to a “tiny small boxroom”. The cut had left her unable to afford heating or pay her phone bill.

Knowles said huge numbers of people were affected, and called on more people to join her group Wythenshawe Smash the Cuts. “We need more numbers because if everybody says no [then] we’re not paying it! We can’t afford to pay it, we don’t have any money to give.

“If we all say no and all stick together then they can’t evict us all and get us all out of our houses. We all have to club together.

“At the moment they’re treating us like cattle and I just think it’s not fair. You can’t just take it lying down anymore.”

After her speech, she pointed out how more and more people were suffering due to the lack of affordable housing. “It’s our homes. They say they need these houses for the rooms for families but really they’re not building any more council houses to put families in.”

Unions

The march wound through Manchester to a lively beat courtesy of the PCS civil servants’ union samba band and drew some applause and car honks from onlookers.

Salford Unison branch secretary Steve North gave a passionate speech calling on trade unions to back the campaign against the “blatant attack on the poor by the rich”.

Demonstrators cheered when North declared that local councils should do more to prevent evictions. “We’re saying to the government that we don’t want the bedroom tax. But we’re going to be saying to councils, Labour councils like Salford’s, like Manchester, that we don’t want you to evict anybody who falls into rent arrears as a result of this horrific tax”.

“For the last few years they’ve been passing on this government’s cuts. This bedroom tax is an opportunity for them to stand up and say they’re not going to do it anymore.

“That they’re there to stand by the people they’re meant to represent, and not the government of the rich that wants to drive us further and further into the ground.”

Councils

Langworthy Labour Councillor Gina Reynolds said Salford Council were asking the city’s two main social landlords, Salix Homes and City West, to reclassify the size of some of their properties.

“We’re trying to negotiate with Salix and City West to redesignate the bedroom properties. Specifically the ones which are two bedroom properties to one”, she said.

“In the long term” she added, not reclassifying the properties “will cost the providers more money. It’ll end up with a lot of people just won’t be able to pay and people are going to get into arrears with this tax.

“I think in the long term that a lot of housing providers are going to end up suffering and that it will be in their interest to redesignate their properties.”

Reynolds added that the tax “should be repealed if we got back into power. I don’t agree with the MPs who sit on the fence with this.”

She did not however clarify what action she would take if the social landlords pursued evictions. “Salix at the moment and City West are saying they’ll try not to evict people but again, we don’t know for sure”, she said.

Richard Goulding

Chloe Glover

Voices against the Bedroom tax

Sam Knowles, Wythenshawe Smash the Cuts

Honor Donnelly, Wythenshawe resident, speaks at the rally

George Tapp, Salford Pensioners Association

Langworthy Councillor Gina Reynolds

 

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Comments

1. […] http://manchestermule.com/article/bedroom-tax-campaigns-gear-up-as-manchester-and-salford-march-once… […]

   Pingback by Interviews with Sam and Honor from Wythenshawe | smashthecuts on April 27, 2013 at 9:32 am

2. Middleton and Rochdale against the Bedroom tax will be holding a meeting on Thursday 2nd May at 7pm in the Olde Boars Head Pub, Middleton. See the facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/161855283976217/

   Everybody is welcome.

   Comment by Becky on April 27, 2013 at 9:40 am

3. […] Community-based action is hardening its resistance and spreading across the city. Listen to some of taking a stand here […]

   Pingback by Manchester and the bedroom tax-latest rally report | The rest is propaganda on April 28, 2013 at 4:30 pm

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