14 February - Not so innocent after all
“The problem in Bexley is largely caused by Labour councils sending
their homeless to Bexley and causing a shortage here.”
So said the Leader a couple of weeks ago and
her claim on
behalf of Bexley Council to be looking after its temporarily housed residents placed
in boroughs far away much better than Labour boroughs who abandoned their
residents in Bexley was the subject of a minor push back.
Minor in terms of numbers but serious if true.
The only case of displacement that ever got close to me did not go amazingly well. A lady who lived not far
away was
shifted down to Gravesend and didn’t get what she bargained for. I never did
quite get to the bottom of that story because Bexley Council denied it and I
lost contact with the lady in question. Bexley had to be given the benefit of the doubt
so when I got another similar message I was just a little bit wary.
It concerned a single parent family the head of which became very seriously ill and
nearly died. Just what one doesn’t need at such a time is to be evicted but
Bexley Council stepped in and rehoused them out of borough, as is almost the norm.
Once safely there they were invited for reasons which are not totally clear to
me to swap their new abode for a hotel room - just for two days. It is alleged
that that is a ruse which would have allowed Bexley Council to repudiate all their responsibilities.
Fortunately the ‘advice’ was not followed. Unfortunately Bexley Council told the
family they were going to be evicted for ignoring it.
Legal opinion was that an eviction in such circumstances would be unprecedented especially as by then the
pandemic was at its height and any eviction would be illegal.
The County Court staff went further and said the procedure adopted by Bexley Council
would have been illegal at any time. When asked to specify the part of the
Court’s Civil Procedural Rules (CPR) which allowed such a move,
Bexley was unable to specify the section they had taken as their authorisation.
For resisting the eviction notice the family had their welfare support terminated and Bexley
Council said it had fulfilled all their legal duties.
Cut off by Bexley Council the family attempted to seek support from their
adopted local authority but they refused to assist citing Bexley’s actions.
There was no alternative but to turn to a charity for help but that was not a
lot of use either, in the end help came from a private benefactor who was both
enormously generous and supportive.
A worrying story which has been totally rewritten to protect the source. There was
however a clue as to where in Bexley the family had lived and as luck would have
it one of the ward Councillors has proved to be a friendly soul in the past.
Was the tale of woe recognised? was the question. It was and broadly correct too.
As well as confirmation that Bexley Council may not be as helpful to the
homeless as the Leader would have us believe the reply included a political message.
“Bexley’s answer is to try to dump their responsibility elsewhere, wherever and whenever
they can. The real answer is to build social housing and properly solve the housing problem.
There are undoubtedly parties placed in Bexley by other London Boroughs, but to
try and present the picture that Bexley is an entirely innocent player and the victim of sharp practice
by other London Boroughs has about as much chance of flying as believing that Boris Johnson is a morally
driven and ethically based decision maker. It is not the slightest bit believable.”