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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 4 April 2008

Homeless claim takes biscuit

• HAVING seen the GLA leaflet from Westminster Tories, it comes as no surprise that Kit Malthouse tries to claim responsibility for halving the number of rough sleepers in Westminster during his time on the council.
It is the government that spent hundreds of millions of pounds providing shelters and “move-on” accommodation.
Compare this to many housing committees where Tories were more than prepared to give some one a one-way ticket out of Westminster. It is the Tories in Westminster who had done much to make so many people homeless with the “right to buy” and “homes for votes” scandals.
For Kit to somehow see this as a positive is beyond me.
How many people were threatened with eviction after the bungles by Capita?
Karen Buck and the Labour group fought hard to prevent these abuses by the Tories and the government did its bit to ensure funding was available – still they wish to find ways to penalise destitute people.
The cost to Westminster residents has been a loss of income, for the year 2003-2004, of £4.1 million in uncollected council tax and nearly £3 million in uncollected rent.
This is not all the fault of residents not paying. A fair chunk of this is down to delays, incorrect decisions, lost forms, and incompetence.
I work to resolve benefit problems and am aware of the failings in my own area.
But Westminster’s problems could be reduced if they funded the voluntary sector better, thus enabling advice workers with an interest in sorting out problems to take on the worst cases and look at the benefit issues that caused their debts.
GARY MARTIN
Third Avenue, E17

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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