Southwark Liberal Democrats Lambast Labour Overcrowding Case

The Southwark Liberal Democrats on Tuesday lambasted Labour after it lost a court case having claimed a resident overcrowded their property as a ‘deliberate act’.

A High Court ruling overturned Southwark Council’s decision to deny the resident’s family high priority for social housing.

Originally, Southwark Council rejected this resident’s request for a higher housing band as it claimed it was a ‘deliberate act’ of the family to overcrowd their property.

Advocacy group Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth (HASL) took on the case for the resident having successfully overturned a similar council decision in the Court of Appeal before.

Commenting, Cllr Victor Chamberlain, Southwark Liberal Democrat Group Leader said:

“Southwark Labour has been heartless in its attempts to repeatedly and wrongfully claim that people are overcrowding their properties as a ‘deliberate act’. This council should be getting on with building social housing and do what it can to stem the huge increase in empty council homes happening under its watch, instead. This behavior toward residents living in unfortunate conditions is, sadly, to be expected from a Labour party who stopped caring what anyone else thinks.”