Lewisham boy, 2, has spent most of his life in one-bed B&B

Anabel, whose name has been changed to protect her family’s privacy, and her newborn son were placed in the flat by Lewisham Council in July 2022 after becoming homeless.

The B&B is managed by the council. The 23-year-old mum and her son have just a small room and kitchen in the property and share a toilet and bathroom with other families. Since 2003, it has been against the law for families with kids to be kept in B&Bs for over six weeks.

But a loophole in the law means that the rules don’t apply when a property is owned or run by a local authority, even though families face similar conditions as in private B&Bs. Anabel, who has to study for university in the room, said the lack of space in the property means her son often becomes stressed and annoyed.

She said: “I cannot get many toys for him to play with, as there just is not the space. I am worried that the lack of space is affecting his development. My son’s second birthday was two weeks ago and I wanted him to be able to celebrate with other children from his playgroup, but there just was not the space for us to have a party.”

The room Anabel shares with her son (Image: Robert Firth)

Due to the legal loophole, Anabel’s only chance of getting rehoused somewhere bigger rests on the council’s response to a housing suitability review she has filed. Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth (HASL), which is supporting Anabel, said that due to council delays, Anabel was only able to file her review in May 2023 – 10 months after she moved into the B&B.

HASL said her application then passed through three council officers over 13 months, even though reviews should normally be complete within two months. Lewisham finally got back to Anabel in June to tell her it hadn’t been able to make a decision about whether she should be moved to different accommodation and passed the case back to a housing officer, according to HASL. She is still waiting for a final decision on her suitability review.

Anabel said: “The council do not really help you and the staff can be rude and do not care. I have been trying to get moved for two years but it has never felt like the council has listened to me. I think they have just forgotten about me.”

Anabel in the B&B (Image: Robert Firth)

Elizabeth Wyatt, from HASL, accused Lewisham Council of ‘exploiting’ legal loopholes and creating long administrative delays to prevent families from being rehoused. She said: “If the council had followed the correct processes, the families should only have been in B&B accommodation for a matter of months. For Anabel and her son, it’s now been two years.

“The council knows that the accommodation is unsuitable. By refusing to acknowledge this they have only been delaying the inevitable, while the families continue to suffer.”

Lewisham Council said it was unable to comment on the specifics of the case due to confidentiality and said like all London boroughs it was facing an acute housing crisis with 2,900 households in temporary accommodation and 11,000 people on its council housing waiting list.

There is little room for drying clothes (Image: Robert Firth)

A council spokesperson added: “We are sorry that the residents are unhappy with their current accommodation. We do our utmost to ensure families are housed in suitable accommodation. We inform them in writing about our suitability decisions, and any request for a statutory review is conducted within strict legal time frames.

“While the statutory reviews period is up to 56 days there are allowances made within the law to extend this, such as due to complexity of the case, for further enquiries to be made or when a client has requested extra time to make further submissions.”