Update on preparation for misconduct in public office charge

The campaign needs to present evidence to the police that the council have been so negligent in their duties that a prosecution would be likely to succeed.

The three people that come to mind initially are Cllr Kam Rai, the Leader of the Council, the monitoring officer and the Chief Executive.

Alleged Motive

On the face of it, Jas Athwal not having a landlord licence/s and the sub-standard condition of his flats as uncovered by Andrew Boff AM and Joe Pike of the BBC suggest a fine should have been issued to Jas Athwal and/or his managing agent by now.

The case that appears a precedent is at https://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/19502119.landlord-wins-court-battle-redbridge-council-fine/#:~:text=On%20July%2029%2C%20Judge%20Martin,should%20be%20given%20a%20warning. The case involved Irene Ekweozoh appealing against a £2500 given by Redbridge Council for not having a landlord licence.

The judge granted the appeal for three reasons:

  1. The landlord was out of the country and had a reasonable excuse for not knowing about the need for landlord licence. Jas Athwal knows all about the need for a licence due to being Leader of the Council and his press comments about the landlord licencing scheme.

  2. The landlord only had one property. The judge gave more lenience to a small landlord than a professional landlord. This is reflected in the public guidance given to landlord in the 2023 Redbridge Private Sector Enforcement Policy (1) when at page 27 large landlords are given more penalty points than small landlords. Jas Athwal is a large landlord with 15 properties.

  3. The judge said that the flat in question was being a good condition was material to his reasons for granting the appeal. Jas Athwal's properties were in a poor state.

A fine for Jas Athwal could have meant Jas Athwal losing the Whip in parliament and also not being allowed to stand at the next general election as a Labour MP. Avoiding this fine for Jas, could have been a motive for Cllr Rai and his officers to not do their job properly and prosecute Jas Athwal.


What the Council should have done

Once the BBC story broke about the substandard state of Jas's properties the Council should have sent inspectors around to make a report on their condition, along with a work schedule issued to Jas and his managing agent and a date to get the work done by. Once Jas had done the work there should be second inspection.

The “complete guide to HHSRS inspections and hazards 2023” makes it clear that the tenants usually report issues to the council to trigger an inspection. However, here the press report suggests the tenants were scared to make a complaint due to retribution from the agent. I quote:

“Another resident said they had been threatened with eviction by the letting agent if they complained about problems in their flat or started claiming benefits.” (1)

Until Jas Athwal or the Council provide evidence that these inspections have taken place I will assume that they have not taken place at all.

I gave an opportunity to Jas Athwal to produce these reports via Twitter (or X.com) on the 18th November 2024 and he declined to produce them.

Should Jas Athwal claim that remedial works have been done, that would not be good enough. We cannot let rogue landlords just say that works have been done, council inspectors must visit, produce a schedule and show the works have been done.

If Jas's tenants were too scared to let inspectors in, the Council has the power of entry if need be for such an eventuality.

Progress so far

I have several Freedom of Information/ environmental regulations requests at my 'what do they know' page to try to gather evidence to send to the police.

The Council are not releasing any information so far for various reasons. However, their refusals are risible, for example the council are refusing to disclose even the dates of writing to Cllr Atwal's agents. How can we know that the council have done their job properly without this and more information? I am confident that while Redbridge may continue to refuse to supply any information helpful to the misconduct in office charge, their arguments will be dismissed in due course during the appeal process.

What needs to be done

Jas Athwal needs to be held to account, otherwise it sends the message that the most vulnerable tenants in England cannot be protected by the law. If Jas Athwal gets away with this then it will encourage strong and powerful Landlords to abuse their position. I have a question to be asked of Cllr Rai at a council meeting of 21st November which is “Please can the Leader tell me how long it is before Redbridge landlords are fined for failing to renew their selective licences?”

Then my supplementary question is likely to be: will the Leader send me by 5pm tomorrow internal guidance given to your staff about how to calculate the required points for fining Landlords per the point system in the 2023 Redbridge Private Sector Enforcement Policy (2)

If the campaign obtains the internal guidance in due course and it can be shown that Redbridge has breached its own guidance by not fining Cllr Athwal, it will be powerful evidence to take to the police that a charge of misconduct in public office should go forward to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The difficulties of getting the police to bring charges are illustrated in a recent BBC article via Lucy Manning entitled “A sexually obscene phone call - and my two-year ordeal getting police to act” This suggests that this campaign may take years as a result. The anticipated long wait is due my expectation that Redbridge will 

  1. BBC report 'Ants are everywhere': Labour MP's tenants reveal condition of flats” written by Joe Pike 30.8.2024 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyg1j0lv1go

  2. 2023 Redbridge Private Sector Enforcement Policy available at https://www.redbridge.gov.uk/media/11708/psh-enforcement-policy-2023-final.pdf

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