Cramped homes a nightmare (From Enfield Independent)

Cramped homes a nightmare

10:24am Wednesday 30th January 2008

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OVERCROWDING in homes is a growing problem in London with almost a third of all children living in homes which are deemed to require at least one more room.

A quarter of residents in an area of Upper Edmonton, where over 60 per cent of the populations rents homes from the council, are subject to overcrowding, revealing a growing trend that social housing is worse than the private sector for overcrowding.

Edmonton MP Andy Love is chair of the all-party group on housing and homelessness need at Westminster.

He said: "As these results show, there is much to be done on local housing in some areas of Edmonton.

"However, there have been significant signs of improvement recently, such as the Government's announcement that at least 70,000 affordable homes will be built, of which 45,000 will be socially rented homes."

In Edmonton Green, Lisa Lewis lives in a private one-bedroom flat with her two daughters, Nicola, four, and 18-month-old Kayleigh.

Working as a part-time learning support assistant at a school in Barnet, Ms Lewis can just about afford to rent the flat, but is unable to move to bigger accommodation and does not qualify for local authority housing.

Her situation is exacerbated by the behaviour of her four-year-old daughter who has learning difficulties.

She said: "I can't see my kids being able to live here for the next two or three years.

"I try to take her (Nicola) out to the park, take her out swimming; I try to do as much as I can but there's only certain times we can be out."

Ms Lewis says the close confines of their home make parenting difficult with a child recognised as having challenging behaviour.

She added that her second baby was still born as a result of her suffering very high blood pressure during pregnancy, which she attributes to the stress of living in her current home.

Ms Lewis said: "I can barely afford to scrape enough together for this place. I would like to be able to bid for properties or be given support to help myself."

Mr Love said that the housing points system, which allows people to bid for council housing, simply reflects the scarcity of accommodation.

There are 9,500 households on the council's register, with families waiting years for a permanent home to become available.

A spokesman said: "The council offers realistic advice to people like Ms Lewis who hope to get council housing, but unfortunately do not qualify.

"If they are already renting in the private sector we can help them to move to another, better property in the private sector, or investigate shared ownership schemes, particularly if they are working."

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