Labour housing boss refuses to resign following housing failures
- At last night's Council meeting, Merton Liberal Democrats slammed Labour’s Housing Cabinet Member for a ‘trilogy of failures’
- Labour promised 400 new council homes by 2026 but not yet built even one; families in Mitcham and Morden face poverty rates of 37.3% once housing costs are considered; and rogue landlords and developers face little action, leaving communities at risk.
Merton Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing and Sustainable Development has refused to resign after Liberal Democrats demanded his departure over what they call a “trilogy of failures”: no new council homes delivered, renters left unprotected, and developers able to flout planning rules.
Where inspections of licensed properties have taken place, 60% required improvement notices, a third of which remain unresolved, evidence - say Merton Lib Dems - that enforcement teams is under-resourced.
On top of that a mish-mash of planning and licensing schemes apply to rental properties across the borough. Licensing of shared houses (HMOs) also remains patchy, with large parts of the borough excluded despite safety and overcrowding concerns.
Local Lib Dem councillors say that this leaves neighbours and local communities to deal with the fallout of poor-quality or inappropriate development, as well as noise problems and anti-social behaviour without support.
At last night’s council meeting, Merton Lib Dems called for urgent action to address the housing crisis, including hiring an affordable housing expert, expanding licensing to protect tenants across the borough, and stronger enforcement against rule-breaking developers.
Disappointingly, Labour councillors once again blocked* Lib Dem measures that would have improved the situation for residents.
Commenting, Merton Liberal Democrat Leader Anthony Fairclough said:
“Labour have massively overpromised and underdelivered on housing, letting families down, leaving renters struggling and turning a blind eye to rogue landlords and developers.”
“We set out practical solutions to fix Merton’s housing crisis - the changes in direction to ensure a responsive service that ensures better quality housing and ensures rule breaking is dealt with. But instead Labour opted to play party politics rather than prioritise the needs of the community.”
ENDS
Further reading
*In addition to the proposals put forward last night, in March, the Liberal Democrats proposed building 100 modular homes to help homeless families, at a cost of just £27,000 each. Labour councillors rejected this plan, instead voting to double the budget for 93 new homes to £611,000 each – costing the Council £57 million in total. The Council has no clear plan for delivering the remaining 307 promised homes. The decision to increase the budget for building 93 new affordable homes from £29.13m to £57m is contained in this Cabinet Report.
Data on the Council’s HMO licensing scheme are in this Report to the Council’s Sustainable Communities Scrutiny Panel on 16th September.
According to Canopy, renters in Merton spent 44.3% of their salary on rent in Q1 2025.
According to the End Child Poverty Coalition, after taking housing costs into account, 37.3% of families with children in Mitcham and Morden are living in poverty.