Ill mum wins £4.5K after she had to pull herself backwards up 30 stairs for over a year

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

An ill mum has won £4,500 from a council after it wrongly housed her in a first-floor flat where she had to pull herself backwards up 30 stairs for one and a half years.

The Ombudsman – which deals with complaints about local authorities – said the homeless woman and her two kids were left in unsuitable temporary accommodation by Lambeth council for 17 months.

The woman, known only as Miss J, also complained the flat was inappropriate as it was a three-hour round trip from her eldest child’s school and located above a noisy music venue, an Ombudsman report reveals.

However, Lambeth council refused to move her when she requested a staff review of her flat in November 2021. Officials judged the accommodation to be appropriate, taking into account her medical needs and limited flats available to the council.

Miss J asked Lambeth to take a second look at her case a few days after she was informed of the refusal. The council should have reached a decision on her appeal the same month, but it took over five months for officials to respond.

In May 2022, the council eventually wrote to her and accepted the first floor flat was unsuitable due to her medical needs.

But Miss J remained in the house for another 11 months, even after she told Lambeth that she was pregnant. The council said it only had accommodation in Kent and Essex, far from her hospital.

The woman eventually moved out of the flat in April 2023 when she found herself private accommodation elsewhere, having accepted she could no longer face living in the property.

The Ombudsman decision dated May 1 reads: “The delay moving Miss J and her family to suitable accommodation is a service failure even though there may well be a shortage of suitable temporary accommodation for her.

“I note the council provided no evidence showing a lack of suitable accommodation available. Nor did it show what active steps it took to try and find such accommodation for her.”

A Lambeth council spokesman said: “We apologise for the failure to provide Miss J with suitable accommodation and for the distress and uncertainty she and her family suffered as a result.

“We accept the Ombudsman’s findings and have agreed to create a new action plan as instructed.”

Pictured top: Lambeth Town Hall (Picture: Google Street View)