The SNP councillor responsible for housing in Dundee has welcomed plans by the UK Government to change the way people are paid housing benefits.
Jimmy Black talked up the Conservative work and pension minister’s proposal for universal credit, saying it could ”make council housing something to value and cherish.”
He made the comments in a blog post on website Scottish Housing News.
Critics of the changes are concerned about new monthly payments, access to an online system and whether the technology will be ready.
The UK Government’s welfare reforms will also cut the amount of housing benefit people get if they have a spare bedroom in their council house the so-called bedroom tax.
Mr Black said: ”I welcome universal credit, because it has the potential to make council housing something to value and cherish.
”To use the jargon, it re-empowers tenants. What I don’t welcome are the deep cuts which come with it. We should reject the cuts, but welcome universal credit.”
Labour MP for Dundee West Jim McGovern described Mr Black’s support for the UK government’s changes to housing benefit as ”very strange.”
”The coalition plan to introduce the bedroom tax, which will see claimants lose between 14% and 25% of their benefit for having extra rooms, is going to cause a great deal of difficulties for many people in Dundee.”
He added: ”The Dundee separatists must be honest and tell us whether or not they are backing the bedroom tax, and if so, how they can justify this unnecessary targeting of ordinary people who are already struggling to make ends meet.”