Labour's Housing Hypocrisy: Evicting Residents to House the Homeless
Westminster Labour Council is forcing dozens of longstanding residents out of their homes so it can use their flats to house homeless Londoners from another part of the city entirely.
Private renters at Garden Court, a block of 32 flats near Kew Gardens in south west London, have been given just two months notice to leave. Their landlord has struck a £16 million deal to sell the entire block to Labour-led Westminster Council for use as temporary accommodation, on the condition that it is handed over without its existing tenants.
Some residents have lived there for over 16 years. They are not being moved on because they caused any problems. They are being removed because Labour needs their homes.
One resident told journalists that Richmond Council has now offered to rehouse her hundreds of miles from London, away from her community, her work and her life, all so Westminster can use her flat to house its own homeless residents.
The human cost is real. Residents have described the anxiety of losing a home they have known for years. Studies disrupted. Careers put on hold. A community pulled apart at two months notice.
Westminster Conservatives have been clear.
Paul Swaddle, Leader of Westminster Conservatives, called it an act of staggering hypocrisy:
"There is no justification for throwing people, including elderly and vulnerable residents, out of their homes at two months notice. Westminster Labour cannot claim to care about housing while pulling the rug from under longstanding residents to fix a crisis of their own making."
The Deputy Leader of Richmond Council has warned that Westminster is creating a revolving door of evictions that pushes the problem of homelessness further and further from the centre of the capital. Residents who lose their homes at Garden Court may end up presenting as homeless to Richmond Council themselves.
This is what happens when a council manages decline rather than tackling it. Panic buying existing blocks of flats, displacing settled residents and shifting the burden onto neighbouring boroughs is not a housing strategy. It is a failure dressed up as a solution.
Westminster deserves better.
A Conservative council will pursue real housing solutions that do not come at the cost of someone else's home. We will protect residents, restore proper scrutiny over major spending decisions and ensure that the most vulnerable people in our city are supported with dignity, not displaced for political convenience.
