Last week five law lords unanimously ordered the two to pay after district auditor John Magill succeeded in overturning an appeal court judgment in May 1999 that had exonerated them.
The council is uncertain whether it will get the money, however, as Porter’s assets are understood to be overseas and she has indicated she may take an appeal to Europe.
Porter and Weeks were found to have acted improperly by overseeing the sale of council homes to people they hoped would be Tory voters in marginal wards, in an attempt to boost their party’s chances in the 1990 council election.
They had taken fright after Labour came within four seats of taking control of the flagship Tory council in 1986.
The £27m represents the costs of the loss of available properties and housing people in temporary accommodation.
Regents Park and Kensington North MP Karen Buck was a Labour councillor at the time of the scandal. She said the real victims of the policy, called Building Stable Communities, were families left in temporary accommodation because of the loss of affordable housing in the borough.
A council spokesman said it was “too early” to speculate on the likelihood of recovering the sum, or on whether it would be spent on housing services if it were received.
Colin Wilson, Westminster’s director of legal services, said: “If the sum due is not received in full within the 14-day period allowed appropriate legal action will be taken.”
Last week 25 MPs signed a motion calling on the government to strip Porter of her title.
London Mayor Ken Livingstone, whose housing advisor Neale Coleman helped build the case against Porter, called the judgement “a crushing indictment of local government sleaze at Tory Westminster”.
Source
Housing Today
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