I would like to thank Councillor Tracey Simpson-Laing for her reply (Letters June 17) to my earlier letter (June 9) about Leeds city council reclassifying some of its council housing so tenants won’t have to pay bedroom tax.

I have the greatest respect for Coun Simpson-Laing; I even voted for her.

Of course York does not have high-rise flats as does Leeds, where they have reclassified 865 properties so far, but it certainly does have hard-to-let areas.

York may not have many five-bed council houses either but, for example, my own is classed three-bed, which means the council expect me to use my dining room as a fourth bedroom even though the kitchen is too small to even fit the fridge and freezer in.

I am sure there is plenty of scope for reclassification if the council really opposed the bedroom tax, as it claimed at a recent meeting of 32 councils in Manchester. There are other options too.

Out of all the people I have spoken to who have been affected by this not one had heard of the discretionary housing payment fund for people in hardship.

I think anyone who has to claim housing benefit is by definition in some form of hardship, so the council could publicise this more.

I would love to have a Labour council who really acted on behalf of people who are being targeted and scared out of their homes by this disgraceful government.

Tina Duke Jute Road, Acomb, York.