Scottish Labour seeks emergency law change to avoid 'bedroom tax' evictions 27 March 2013 Last updated at 00:58 Labour is calling on the Scottish government to pass emergency legislation to ensure no tenants are evicted as a result of arrears caused by the so-called "bedroom tax." Under planned changes to benefit rules, people in social housing who are deemed to have too much living space could lose money. Alex Salmond has already said no SNP-led council will evict tenants. Labour wants him to go further and enshrine that promise in law. The UK government has argued the changes to the welfare system will help cut the £23bn annual bill for housing benefit, free up more living space for overcrowded families and encourage people to get jobs. The new rules, which come into force on 1 April, will affect housing benefit which is paid to less well-off tenants to help with rent. It has been claimed as many as 95,000 people in Scotland may lose some of their housing benefit. On average they could face a cut of between £9 and £12 a week. Council shortfalls At the SNP's conference last weekend, the first minister promised that no SNP-led council would evict tenants because of arrears caused by these changes. But Scottish Labour wants ministers north of the border to go further. It said Holyrood has the power to make it impossible to use "bedroom tax" arrears as a reason for eviction. In effect, Labour's proposal would mean there would be a compensation scheme to make up any shortfall councils are facing. The housing charity Shelter said it believed this could be as much as £50m a year. In the meantime, at least three Labour-led councils are set to promise not to evict tenants who get into arrears. Fife Council said it had agreed not to pursue eviction measures, provided tenants had contacted the council to discuss their financial position and where doing all they reasonably could to avoid falling arrears. West Dunbartonshire is due to consider its plans later and said it had been looking at a variety of measures to help tenants without putting the housing budget at risk. Renfrewshire Council will debate the issue on Thursday.