Liberal Democrats admit housing fraud ‘lies’

Lambeth housing

Liberal Democrat councillors have been forced to admit they lied to the public about how a £3 million fraud operation was discovered at Lambeth council. Since the theft of millions of pounds from Lambeth Housing came to light, senior Liberal Democrat councillors, including the Leader of the Council, have repeatedly claimed that the fraud was uncovered by the Council's own systems.

Liberal Democrats wanted people to believe that the Council's control systems were operating properly.

But as a result of Labour's insistence, the Council has now issued the following statement: "The alleged fraud came to light after Lambeth Council housing officers acted on information passed to them from a third party." Lambeth residents now need to know whether any of the council’s control and anti-fraud systems are operating. Today’s admission directly contradicts the initial Lib Dem claims and begs the question: why did they put out statements they knew to be untrue?

Labour Leader Steve Reed has already written to the Lib Dem Leader of the Council and Executive Member for Housing to find out why.

The Leader of Lambeth’s Labour Opposition, Councillor Steve Reed said:

“Losing £3 million of public money is bad enough, but the Lib Dems are just making matters worse by lying. It is very dangerous for them to suggest all is fine in Lambeth Housing when clearly it is not.”

“What is needed here is decisive action which will ensure all the proper financial checks are being made. Sadly we have a Lib Dem Council which is only interested in trying to cover for themselves.”

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