London Borough of Southwark is penalising overcrowded families - send an e-mail protest! • Public Interest Law Centre

In September, PILC and HASL together with 30+ local community groups wrote an open letter to Southwark council about the culture of blame and refusal faced by families in overcrowded housing trying to access support from the council. We highlighted how the council’s actions are targeting low-income families from BAME and migrant backgrounds.

But Southwark council’s response to our open letter continues to blame families in overcrowded housing saying it is a ‘choice’, suggesting other areas of the country where they could live instead, accusing them of trying to ‘exploit’ the waiting list, and refusing to engage with the reasonable suggestions we made.

Please help us put pressure on Southwark council by joining our email campaign letting them know that this approach towards some of their most vulnerable and overcrowded residents is totally unacceptable and calling on them to remove the ‘deliberate act’ term from their policy. Emails will be sent to Leader of Southwark Council, Kieron Williams, and Strategic Director of Housing, Michael Scorer. You can join the campaign by filling in the form at the bottom of this page.

The council is ignoring the real causes of the housing crisis – high private rents, benefit cuts and a shortage of council homes – as well as the structural barriers that working class, migrant and BAME households face when trying to access housing.

We have helped to overturn numerous unfair decisions in individual cases but these families should never have been blamed for overcrowding in the first place, and many families are still facing gatekeeping and harmful decision-making by the council. One HASL family’s case against their ‘deliberate act’ decision will be heard in the Court of Appeal on Thursday 10^th December.

The council has failed to engage with us to help improve its policy and support families who are living in severely overcrowded conditions.

Join our email action against Southwark council’s unfair and harmful treatment of families in overcrowded housing.

Correspondence

28 September 2020, our open letter to Southwark council
Southwark council’s response
10 November 2020 in an attempt to get clear answers to the specific problems and questions raised we sent another letter
We got a short reply which did not answer our questions and simply invited families to review any decisions that they were unhappy with.

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Please fill in the form. When you press send it will be automatically forwarded to London Borough of Southwark.

You may amend the text to include your own comments before pressing send.

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Dear Mr Williams and Mr Scorer,
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We write in order to express our concerns regarding the council’s failure to support overcrowded families. Of particular concern is the council’s policy on ‘Deliberate Act’ and ‘Deliberately Worsening of Circumstances’, which are being used by the council to blame families for their overcrowding. As you are aware, on 14 September 2020, PILC and HASL together with 30+ local community groups wrote an open letter to Southwark council. The letter highlighted how the council's actions have been impacting low-income families from BAME and migrant backgrounds. This letter outlined how the Council had failed to support overcrowded families. Clear and simple changes to the policy on overcrowding were suggested, which would have ensured that families living in overcrowded housing would be properly supported by the council. However, we were very disappointed at the council’s response to our letter. The council continues to blame families in overcrowded housing saying it is a 'choice', suggesting other areas of the country where they could live instead, accusing them of trying to 'exploit' the waiting list, and refusing to engage with the reasonable suggestions we made. The council has failed to properly engage with the issues we raised and as a result has failed to improve its policy, and support families who are living in overcrowded conditions. The council is ignoring the real causes of the housing crisis - high private rents, benefit cuts and a shortage of council homes - as well as the structural barriers that working class, migrant and BAME households face when trying to access housing. Overall, Southwark’s policy does a good job at allocating housing according to an applicant’s need. However, its policies and practices relating to overcrowding have been undermining its otherwise effective policy. In light of the concerns raised, we demand that the council: a. Removes the concept of 'deliberate act' from its policy on statutory overcrowding; b. Confirms that in accordance with its allocation policy, an applicant will only have been deemed to have deliberately worsened their circumstances, in the rare instance ‘where there is clear evidence and a conclusion can properly be drawn that an applicant has deliberately made worse their circumstances in order to achieve higher priority on the register’; and c. Provide updated guidance to housing officers on the above. The council needs to take the above specific action to ensure that overcrowded families are supported in securing more suitable accommodation.
Yours sincerely,
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