In response to new Government figures revealing that 1131 households in Greenwich and 2195 households in Lewisham were recorded as living in temporary accommodation between April and June 2019, including a total of 1775 children in Greenwich and 4464 children in Lewisham, local London Assembly Member, Len Duvall AM, said:
“It is terrible to think of so many local families waking up on Christmas Day in unsuitable, and in some cases, unsafe living conditions.
“This is an often-overlooked scandal that has been perpetuated by decades of failure to hit housing supply targets. We simply cannot allow children in our community to remain trapped in unsuitable accommodation, often with no space to learn or play.
“Under Sadiq Khan, City Hall is making a difference by directly funding the development of new council homes for the first time. But the overall number of council homes in London continues to fall because the government refuses to end Right to Buy.
“The Government has an opportunity to turn this around by scrapping the Right to Buy and devolving the funding and the powers for the Mayor to go even further. The scrapping of no fault evictions, and the introduction of open-ended tenancies, would also make life in the private rented sector far more stable for millions of people”.
Notes to editors
- Len Duvall AM is the London Assembly Member for Greenwich and Lewisham.