Scrap the "disastrous" bedroom tax or let Holyrood do it, MSPs have once again demanded of Westminster's Con-Dem coalition.

Some 80,000 households in Scotland have been hit by the policy which cuts housing benefit by up to 24 per cent for those living in council or housing association homes deemed to be "under-occupied."

Those households have a median gross income of just £209 a week yet face eviction unless they can pay an average of £728 a year in arrears - the equivalent of six weeks' rent.

The fallout drove backbenchers on the Scottish Parliament's welfare reform committee to pan the sanctions as "bad law" yesterday.

Committee convener and Scottish Labour MSP Michael McMahon said they could draw no other conclusion than to demand that the coalition abolish the policy "with immediate effect - and if they won't do that, to give the Scottish Parliament the powers and resources to do so."

"Smaller properties just aren't available because we spent years developing our housing stock to offer homes people could grow their families in, so they could set down roots and establish communities.

"The reality for many is they cannot pay, and they cannot move," he said.

The No 2 Bedroom Tax campaign's Wallace Kerr claimed there was already a simple solution - the Scottish government could accept its petition to boost local authorities' discretionary housing payment grants to meet the full £50m shortfall caused by the policy.

The petition, presented to the committee earlier this week, would ensure all tenants and their landlords were protected from the policy, he said.