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.
A high court judge dismissed the council’s decision in May, ruling that the family were unlawfully excluded by Southwark after it refused to place them on the priority housing list. In a judgement, Mr Justice Lang said: “At that time he [Mr Roman] obtained for himself and his family the best accommodation which he could afford. He did not take it with any thought of improving his position on the register, a possibility of which at the time he had no knowledge.
“[The] council’s approach leads to some odd, or even perverse, consequences. It means that an applicant who acts reasonably in taking the most suitable accommodation for his family that he can afford disqualifies himself from priority once his children grow to an age which renders that accommodation statutorily overcrowded.”
The council’s final legal bill could end up even bigger than £14,000 as it is responsible for paying 90% of Mr Roman’s legal bills. In its response to the Lib Dems’ question, Southwark Council also revealed it had rejected 44 families’ requests for band one priority since 2019 by claiming overcrowding was deliberate.
Campaign group Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth took on the case for the family having successfully overturned a similar decision at the Court of Appeal previously. Milton and his family moved into a new home on July 4 after having their bid for a home accepted.
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.”
In May, Southwark Council apologised to the family. Councillor Darren Merrill, cabinet member for council homes and homelessness said: “The judge ruled that the council was wrong to assess the family as deliberately overcrowding themselves. We respect the decision of the court and we are carefully reviewing the judgement. We should not have described them as deliberately overcrowded, and we are sorry we got this wrong.”
