London councils at financial breaking point, it is warned

Collectively, London’s 33 local authorities – which deliver everything from street cleaning, libraries and parks, to statutory duties like bin collections, housing the homeless and caring for vulnerable adults and children – are expected to overspend by more than £600m this financial year alone, according to London Councils, a group representing local authorities in the capital. The funding gap is likely to be over £700m next year.

For Harlie, moving between temporary accommodation for the past decade has been difficult. She became homeless because she could not afford the high cost of private rent. After escaping a domestic abuse situation last year, she is now caring alone for her two children, Frankie, aged eight and Finnlie, aged two.

She said: “If we were more settled as a family and had somewhere more secure and safe to live I would be able to get them into nurseries, back into full-time school and sort of be living a normal life because right now the constant moving and upheaval of it all isn’t healthy for anybody.”

Some of the temporary places they have been housed in have had problems with mould and sewage. Explaining why he preferred their latest placement in Lambeth, Frankie said: “I can have baths without raw sewage coming up. I wish we could stay here. I wish it was our house forever.”