Indie: MPs & lawyers call for controversial squatter law to be axed

[Tony Gosling]

Six months, no jail sentences: call for controversial squatter law to be axed
According to government figures 34,080 families 
were homeless in 2012, a 12 per cent rise
Charlie Cooper  - Sunday 24 March 2013
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/six-months-no-jail-sentences-call-for-controversial-squatter-law-to-be-axed-8547591.html
Six months after new laws were introduced to 
“protect homeowners” from squatters, police have 
not arrested a single person for displacing 
residents from their home, leading to calls for the legislation to be scrapped.
Three people have been jailed since the new law 
criminalising squatting came into effect in 
September, and 33 have been arrested – but all 
involved squatters occupying previously empty properties.
A group of lawyers, campaigners and MPs are now 
calling for the “superfluous” law to be repealed. 
However, the Justice minister, Damian Green, said 
the Government had “no intention” of changing its position.
Squatting in a residential building was made a 
criminal offence last year after several stories 
involving homeowners returning to their 
properties to find squatters living there 
attracted widespread media attention. The 
Government argued that existing laws, which made 
it a criminal offence for trespassers to remain 
in a property only after being requested to leave 
by the occupier, did not sufficiently protect homeowners.
However, none of those arrested so far under 
Section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and 
Punishment of Offenders Act, had displaced someone from their home.
Andrew Arden QC, a leading expert on housing law, 
told The Independent that the new law “criminalises the most needy”.
“The only difference from the old law is that it 
wasn’t criminal before, until you were asked to 
leave,” he said. “It is a superfluous law that 
criminalises action taken by the most needy whose 
housing needs are certainly going to worsen.”
Mr Arden is one of 30 lawyers who have signed a 
letter to The Guardian calling for Section 144 to 
be scrapped, a call echoed by Squatter’s Action 
for Secure Homes (Squash), which carried out an 
in-depth study into the use of the new law.
The Labour MP John McDonnell, who has called on 
Parliament to repeal Section 144, said “vulnerable people” were suffering.
“There was no need for a new law,” he said. “It 
was put through on the basis of prejudice ... to 
pander to the media and the right wing of the 
Conservative Party. We’re now finding young 
homeless people being sent to prison at great 
cost to themselves and to the Exchequer. There 
was a complete failure to assess the legislation 
before they rushed it through.”
According to government figures released last 
week, 34,080 families were homeless in 2012, up 
12 per cent on the previous year.
Metropolitan Police figures last week revealed 
that 41 of the 92 people prosecuted or cautioned 
in London under the new law were Romanians.
Mr Green said the law “is enabling the police and 
other agencies to take quick and decisive action to protect homeowners”.
He added: “We have no intention of getting rid of 
it. Squatters have been playing the justice 
system and causing homeowners untold misery in 
eviction and clean-up costs. It will not be tolerated.”

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Fear not therefore: for there is nothing covered 
that shall not be revealed; and nothing hid that 
shall not be made known. What I tell you in 
darkness, that speak ye in the light and what ye 
hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. Matthew 10:26-27
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