Squatters have been handed details of prime empty properties, after a controversial ruling by the information commissioner. After a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, Lambeth LBC was forced to release a list of 800 empty properties to a squatters' organisation. The council said a legal precedent set by Bexley LBC meant it had to hand over the details, even though officers feared it would potentially lead to a marked rise in squatting in the borough. Lib Dem opposition leader, Cllr Ashley Lumsden, accused the council of ‘incompetence' in the way it handled the request from the Advisory Service for Squatters, submitted in September last year, demanding a list of all its empty homes. Bexley LBC challenged a similar FOI inquiry in 2006 and was instructed by the information tribunal that it had a legal duty to provide the address details of empty properties which were not owned by individuals. A spokeswoman for Lambeth Living, which manages housing stock for the council, said: ‘When responding to FOI requests, we have to operate within the letter of the law. ‘Clearly, we are determined to protect our properties for the benefit of those who are genuinely homeless, and we thoroughly explored every option to see if we had to respond to this request.'
