PILC challenges Southwark Council’s new housing allocations scheme and consultation process

PILC has filed judicial review proceedings on behalf of a member of Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth (HASL), challenging Southwark Council’s new housing allocations scheme and the consultation that preceded its approval.

HASL campaigners warn that Southwark Council’s newly approved housing scheme risks worsening overcrowding and pushing homeless families and households with severe medical needs further down the waiting list. The new scheme also allows additional allocation rules through Annual and Local Lettings Plans, raising concerns around transparency.

The scheme was approved despite strong community opposition and concerns that the consultation failed to meaningfully engage residents, properly consider their responses or address language barriers. PILC’s legal action seeks to hold the Council accountable for the lawfulness of its consultation and the scheme it approved.

Impact of the new rules

Southwark Council’s existing housing allocations scheme – implemented in 2014 – was already imperfect, leaving many residents facing long waits for suitable housing. Housing pressures in Southwark are acute and growing; more than 23,000 households are on the housing waiting list.

However, HASL warns that the newly approved scheme will aggravate already dire conditions for some households.

Their concerns include several changes that will see homeless households deprioritised and pushed down the waiting list, including the removal of additional priority for homeless households. HASL is also concerned that the new bedroom rules may require same-sex siblings to share a bedroom until they are 21, rather than 16. The groups also warn that greater reliance on Annual and Local Lettings Plans will make it harder for residents to understand how homes are allocated or how their housing needs are prioritised.

Liz Wyatt, organiser with HASL, states:

"The new housing allocations policy will be with us for the next decade. The housing waiting list rules are life-changing for Southwark residents and can determine whether people will get a permanent social home in 1-2 years or a decade. The new rules being implemented right now mean that homeless families and disabled people in unsafe housing will face even longer in intolerable housing conditions.

The chaotic new rules will also cause even deeper distrust, confusion, and suspicion of how social homes are allocated.

From the very start of the consultation process, HASL members mobilised to raise our serious concerns. But the Council has refused to listen to us and the consultation has been a sham from beginning to end.

Southwark residents deserve so much better than this, especially those at the sharpest end of the homeless crisis including over 4,000 homeless families in temporary accommodation.

We’re so proud of our member for taking this vital legal challenge and we won’t stop until we get the fairest and best waiting list rules possible."

Community opposition and protest

HASL has led extensive community campaigning efforts to engage with the consultation process and urge councillors to address their concerns. HASL members submitted 390 responses through a form organised by HASL, highlighting the serious impact the proposed changes would have on residents already at the sharpest edge of housing insecurity. HASL says the Council ultimately ignored these responses by treating them as a single submission to the consultation.

HASL also mobilised 150 community members outside of Southwark Town Hall, protesting the undemocratic consultation process and urging councillors to pause the approval of the scheme and engage with the housing organisations. Although the scheme was ultimately approved, communities remain opposed.

PILC’s legal challenge

Alongside HASL campaigning efforts, PILC has issued judicial review proceedings against Southwark Council on behalf of a HASL member, challenging the lawfulness of the new allocations scheme and the unfair and exclusionary consultation process that led to its approval.

The challenge raises concerns about the scheme’s banding structure and its impact on overcrowded households, as well as whether the Council met its equality duties, including in addressing language barriers that prevented residents from meaningfully participating in the consultation.

PILC Solicitor Adriana Matrigiani said:

“Thousands on Southwark’s housing register spend years waiting to be allocated permanent housing. They all deserve to have a fair say in decisions about their homes. This challenge seeks to hold the Council to account for how it makes those decisions and supports wider campaigning efforts to tackle the housing crisis.”

For more information about the case and campaign, contact:

HASL: haslcases@gmail.com

Media enquiries: Darío Karim Pomar Azar (media@pilc.org.uk)