NTI_CANNABIS_BEDROOM_TAX_02

FILE PICTURE – Cannabis factory found in the front bedroom of a house in Glastonbury, Somerset. See NTI story NTICANNABIS. Desperate council tenants hit by the ‘bedroom tax’ are renting out spare rooms to criminal gangs to grow cannabis, to pay off debts it has been claimed. Council sources say as many as 50 every month are turning to drugs cash as they fall deeper into debt because of the benefit cut and rising cost of living. Cannabis gangs are known to be targeting vulnerable tenants and in some cases forcing them to agree to break the law. More than 14,500 tenants are now paying the so-called bedroom tax in Birmingham. It was controversially introduced by the government in April and has led to a reduction in benefit to families deemed to have too much living space