Bedroom Tax: Cuts to the Spare Room Subsidy (might!) save £470m. But the new Help To Buy subsidy costs £12bn. That means it’s not about cutting the deficit

SOURCE INDEPENDENT: Bedroom tax: Families trapped with nowhere to move face penalty for having spare room

The policy means that tenants have their housing benefit reduced by 14 per cent if they have one spare bedroom, and 25 per cent if they have two or more spare bedrooms. Yet more than 19 out of 20 families hit by the bedroom tax are trapped in their larger homes because there is nowhere smaller within the local social housing stock to take them.

SOURCE BBC NEWS: Strong start for Help to Buy, say lendersTwo major lenders have reported a strong uptake in the first month of the government's extended Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme. But critics are concerned it could help to create a UK housing bubble.

OUR RELATED STORIES:

Graphs at a glance: Government's "Help To Buy" won't help those struggling to buy a house. But it will help people with rich parents

Graphs at a glance: See how the government caps benefits for the poor but subsidises "affordable housing" for people on £80k

Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals scale of UK housing crisis

Liebrary: "If it isn't hurting, it isn't working". How Austerity works for the few by hurting the many

Build more affordable homes, reverse the property bubble, and we'll save billions