A South London council spent £14,000 on a failed high court battle to stop a family-of-four living in a studio flat from getting a bigger house. A judge overturned Southwark Council’s decision to refuse to give the family a higher priority for rehousing in May.
The local authority revealed it squandered £14,124 in legal fees unsuccessfully trying to claim the family’s overcrowded housing situation was a deliberate act. The figure came to light following a question by Southwark’s Lib Dem group to the Labour-run council, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Milton Laines Roman, his wife Celia and two teenage children had been living in a cramped studio flat for five years. Mr Roman asked the council to place the family in a higher band for council housing because of the size of their flat, but Southwark refused and tried to claim their overcrowding was deliberate.
