London borough changes its definition of ‘overcrowding’ after legal challenge: report

A legal challenge brought by the Public Interest Law Unit (PILU) and Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth (HASL) has forced Southwark Council to change the definition it uses for ‘overcrowding’, it has been claimed.

Acting for a couple with three children under ten, the two organisations claimed that the definition the London borough used wrongly focussed only on the amount of floor area in a property without taking into account the number of rooms as required by the Housing Act 1985.

This meant that the family were not treated as a high priority for rehousing into permanent accommodation, they added.

PILU solicitor Helen Mowatt said: “Our client and his family are now in Southwark’s highest priority band for allocation so stand a much better chance of being rehoused to accommodation that is suitable and not severely overcrowded. This should have happened months ago.

“This was not an isolated error on the part of the council. Evidence shows that Southwark have been consistently misapplying the law in every case. It is therefore likely that many households have wrongly been assessed as not being statutorily overcrowded and therefor placed in the incorrect housing band.”

Mowatt said there may have been as many as 13 cases since February 2018 which must now be reviewed. However, PILU and HASL are unclear how many households had been affected before then, and will call on Southwark to review all relevant cases.

Elizabeth Wyatt from HASL said: “Overcrowded housing in the private rented sector and in Southwark's own council housing, is one of the main problems we come across. It is one of the more invisible sides of the housing crisis. We know many families forced to live in single rooms, studio flats and one bed flats because of discrimination and extortionate rents in the private rented sector.

“Southwark Council should be supporting their residents to access their housing rights and the secure council homes they need. Instead it took a legal challenge before the council would accept that it had been wrongly denying that the families were statutorily overcrowded.

“Together with PILU, we will be making sure that the council goes back to review all previous decisions and applies the law correctly for all future cases.”

Southwark Council has been approached for comment.