Birmingham University Labour Students

Following up on the housing scandal revealed by Cllr Mike Leddy last week, the Cabinet member for housing, John Lines has made a response.

“I will be the first to criticise the disgraceful allocations policy of the previous administration of which Cllr Leddy was part of, which gave someone leaving prison the same priority as someone leaving the armed forces. This is no longer the case. Cllr Leddy should hang his head in shame.”

The Stirrer had reported that Cllr Lines rubbished these claims.

However if you turn to the actual report here you will see that Leddy’s initial claims seem to be true.

Cllr Mike Leddy originally pointed out that: “If somebody is discharged from prison, they get 140 housing points and it was confirmed that this could be increased to 200 points at the discretion of a housing officer. An ex-serviceman coming out of the Forces starts at 75 and a woman with a young child gets 110 or 120.”

Leddy first raised these concerns in May before highlighting them again to the Scrutiny Committee in September. It seems John Lines failed to take these criticisms on board.