Labour Council hands list of empty properties to squatters
Labour Lambeth has released details of 1,000 empty Council-owned properties to an organisation that promotes squatting after ‘accidentally’ publishing a list of all vacant properties in the appendix of a council document.
Our borough currently has more than 17,000 homeless families on the waiting list for social housing, with the average waiting time to be rehoused currently standing at more than six years. In the current economic climate that number is expected to rise significantly while hundreds of empty houses rot away.
This latest cock-up follows in a long line of crises to come out of the Housing department, including:
- Several high profile squats over the past 12 months including an entire estate in Clapham Park and Minet Library House in Camberwell
- The loss of up to £22 million in 2007/08
- Last month’s 17% rent hike
- Service charge increases as high as 60%
The number of empty council-owned properties has actually doubled since Labour regained control of the Council in 2006, costing the borough’s tenants and tax payers hundreds of thousands of pounds in lost rent and council tax receipts, plus huge security bills, while creating a blight on the surrounding area.
Labour’s incompetent handling of the Council’s finances means they do not have enough money to bring the properties back into use, with many now in such a bad state of repair that they may never be used as homes again. In some cases Labour councillors have perrmitted the deliberate wrecking of homes to prevent resquatting.
Conservative Group Leader John Whelan says: “This is a further indictment of Labour’s management of Lambeth’s housing service and a tragedy for the homeless families in our borough faced with the prospect of waiting for several years before a home becomes available.”
