READING East MP Matt Rodda is calling on the Housing Minister and his neighbouring parliamentary rival to scrap the Bedroom Tax.

Within the Reading Borough, 336 people are charged Bedroom Tax and the Labour politician is appealing to Alok Sharma MP to cut the strain on dependant households.

The charge decreases the overall Housing Benefit awarded if a claimant occupies housing association or local authority home, which is deemed to have one or more spare bedrooms.

Mr Rodda slammed the 'unfair' penalty and called for his Conservative rival to reconsider.

He said: “The Labour manifesto promises to scrap the Bedroom Tax. I wholeheartedly support that promise.

“Hundreds of people are affected in Reading and I think it is unfair for the Government to penalise those in the lowest income bracket with yet another financial burden.

“The Bedroom Tax is divisive and plunges those in society who need the most help further and further into debt.

“Austerity is a real issue in Reading, and the Bedroom Tax makes an already dire situation worse.

“I would call upon Alok Sharma as both a Reading MP in the neighbouring constituency and also as the Housing Minister to reconsider the continued imposition of the Bedroom Tax.”