Years ago, elderly widows and widowers with a big house or spare room took in men and women who had no family or place to call home. This gave them dignity, a family atmosphere, and a safe place in the community. This also allowed them to look out for each other with no additional cost to the taxpayer.
Somewhere along the line, unthinking government ministers decided these community-minded landlords should pay tax [on this imcome] and threatened them with fines if they did not comply.
With enough to do, and no knowledge of how to navigate the new system, this extra burden was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Unfortunately, most were turned out onto the streets to fend for themselves.
It was not just the boarders but the elderly landlords who lost the support that enabled them to remain and maintain their homes. A double loss for the government coffers as both became huge financial burdens!
Soul-destroying ‘homeless shelters’ were acquired or built, which stripped away any dignity this hapless group had managed to earn whilst in homely accommodation.
Until sufficient, reasonably priced accommodation for this huge army of homeless can be built, anyone with a spare space or garden [shed] should be permitted to take these unlucky people in without being unfairly taxed or hounded.
If law makers had any common sense at all, they would recognise the gift that ‘spare rooms’ have afforded them over the years, and what these rooms can continue to do.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
