Councillor David Ross has accused the SNP group of “playing silly games in search of a cheap headline”, in a row over so-called bedroom tax evictions.
The leader of Fife Council’s Labour administration accused the SNP of “needlessly confusing and worrying tenants” and said Fife has a no-eviction policy on the “bedroom tax”.
At a meeting of the Fife Council executive committee, the SNP accused Labour councillors of “refusing to support Fife’s bedroom tax victims.”
The SNP moved a motion to protect tenants from the threat of eviction for rent arrears related to the introduction of the so-called bedroom tax by the Westminster Government.
The SNP also moved that the committee should “welcome the move by the Scottish Government to fully fund the mitigation of the housing benefit lost to Fifers due to the bedroom tax”.
Fife Council SNP group’s senior housing spokesperson, Dunfermline councillor Brian Goodall, put forward a motion that stated council tenants should be protected from the threat of eviction and fully supported to claim the funding made available by the Scottish Government to offset the cost of the bedroom tax.
This motion was not supported by the Labour administration or anyone else on the committee because Fife already has a clear no-eviction policy on the “bedroom tax”.
But Mr Goodall said: “The Scottish Government moved to protect tenants from the bedroom tax as soon as they were given the power to do so and I’m disgusted that instead of fully supporting tenants to claim that financial support, Labour in Fife want to continue to demand bedroom tax rent arrears, with threats of possible eviction still being made.”
The extra funding from the Scottish Government has been made available to tenants through the Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) system and SNP government ministers have confirmed that all bedroom tax-related claims for this year and next will be covered.
Mr Goodall added: “The DHP system is not the ideal way to deal with this problem but it’s the best option available for now. It would, of course, be much better if the Scottish Government had the power to simply abolish the bedroom tax altogether.
“The fact that Labour have campaigned so hard alongside the Tories to keep that power out of Scotland’s hands probably goes a long way to explain why they have taken such a despicable position on the bedroom tax here in Fife.”
Council leader David Ross responded: “Yet again the SNP are playing silly games in search of a cheap headline.
“They know very well that Fife already has a clear no-eviction policy on the bedroom tax that is the same as many other councils including those run by the SNP. “They also know that we have offset bedroom tax by 100% this year and intend to do the same next year now that additional funding has been confirmed by the Scottish Government.
“The only thing they are doing is needlessly confusing and worrying tenants.”