Lambeth Council will refuse to enforce Home Office rules that mean people can be deported if they sleep rough. Changes to the Government’s Immigration Rules in December 2020 introduced rough sleeping as grounds to take people’s right to stay in the UK away. In April, the rules were changed to clarify that permission “may only be refused or cancelled where a person has repeatedly refused suitable offers of support and engaged in persistent anti-social behaviour”. But Lambeth Council approved a motion on Wednesday night (July 21) to “support refugees to make Lambeth their home”, which included refusing to work with the Home Office on the new rules and to back the #SupportdontDeport campaign.
An extra £1.5 million is set to be added to the council tax support scheme for 2022/23, which is expected to reduce bills for 7,000 eligible households “with most of those seeing their bill reduced to nil”. At the council meeting the leader of the opposition, Green Cllr Jonathan Bartley, reiterated his concerns that the added support would not come into effect until 2022/23 and that the council plans to raise funds through enforcement. Cllr Andy Wilson, cabinet member for finance and performance, previously said there is a precedent for having to go through a long consultation before the extra support is introduced. But he said between now and the outcome of the consultation the council is putting forward funding to “essentially create the same amount of relief for residents as they would receive under the new council tax support scheme”.