Brent borough council has denied reports that 4000 people were excluded from its housing allocation list.
Brent’s Liberal Democrat group alleged that tenants were given one month to re-register on a new housing list introduced by the council. The letter informing tenants of the change – a sizeable minority of whom come from the “hard to reach” Somali and Tamil communities – was sent out in English, according to the Liberal Democrats.

A spokeswoman for the council dismissed the claims as “complete rubbish. The council is updating its housing list, but there is no way in the world we would knock people off the list if they did not get back to us within one month.”

The introduction of a pilot scheme for letting one-bedroom flats caused the confusion, she said. Called “Locata”, the scheme aims to replace the current system whereby tenants are offered properties with one that allows more choice. People have a month to register for the pilot, but will not be taken off the housing list if they don’t.

She confirmed that the letter was written in English, but said advice on how to receive more information was included in other languages.

Source

Housing Today