'Bedroom tax' row continues

It's been revealed that thousands of tenants in the south-east are being forced to pay the so-called 'bedroom tax' - and yet it's virtually impossible for them to move into smaller homes.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed an extreme scarcity of one-bedroom social housing across the region.

It means that in Medway, for example, smaller homes are available for only one per cent of people paying the penalty for having a spare room. In Thurrock, the situation is little better. John Ryall reports.

More than 96% of households affected by the so-called 'bedroom tax' are unable to move into smaller properties, Labour has claimed.

An estimated 238,266 households have been hit by the housing benefit cut for people deemed to have a spare room, according to data from 95 councils in England, Scotland and Wales.

Responding to Freedom of Information requests from Labour, 61 local authorities were able to estimate how many one or two-bedroom council properties are vacant in their area - a total of 9,095 proporties.

Read: What is the Government's controversial 'bedroom tax'?