SIR – Your front page article laid bare the harsh realities that await hundreds of tenants in the city about to be affected by the bedroom tax.

A significant proportion will end up evicted eventually when arrears become overwhelming.

A large number of these victims will have been model tenants never previously being in rent arrears and may eventually be subjected to the horror of an eviction date, the problem of what to do with their belongings and pets, and finding themselves suddenly on the move looking for a bed and breakfast or other refuge.

In trying to avoid this worst-case scenario they are forced to juggle between eating, heating, and other outgoings, compromising their own health and enduring the morale-sapping impact of struggle for months or even years.

Those who manage to downsize may well end up in the private sector where not only will it cost much more in housing benefit but they will have less security, and simply making the move would involve great expense, not to mention the emotional impact of being parted from one’s treasured home.

The unpalatable fact is that highly educated individuals in politics and the civil service have devised a policy which will make virtual refugees of our own citizens, seeking to displace them from their homes in order to create space for those who have a perceived greater need.

It would be a questionable policy to impose downsizing even if there were sufficient properties for people to downsize to.

But in the absence of such alternatives it is a grave injustice that is being wilfully imposed on as many as 660,000 people in the UK.

It has the potential to become a sort of humanitarian disaster yet is cynically spun as a socially progressive policy designed to help people.

We should all be worried about the lack of compassion, realism, and humanitarian ethics behind this policy because this could well be a blueprint for even more dangerous changes in future.

ANDREW BROWN

Worcester