THE government’s Minister for Housing, Grant Shapps, has handed Redbridge £163,000 to tackle criminal landlords who are cramming vulnerable people into ‘beds in sheds’ in back gardens.

The grant is one of nine handed out to councils across London as well as those in Slough and Peterborough to help tackle what Mr Shapps called ‘suburban shanty towns’.

He said: "I'm determined to flush out criminal landlords who think they can make an easy buck from cramped, cockroach-ridden outhouses.

"The scandal of 'beds in sheds' must come to an end.

"In the 21st century it simply isn't acceptable that people should be forced to live in such squalid and unsanitary conditions.

“That is why I have allocated £1.8 million to help councils in the worst affected areas crack down on this cruel exploitation.”

Redbridge’s Cabinet Member of Housing Robin Turbefield, welcomed the windfall.

He said: “We will use the money to employ more housing enforcement officers to tackle the problem which is largely confined to the south of the borough.

“Redbridge is a good place to live in with a diverse number of communities.

“That means a lot of people gravitate to the area.

“Some of those people have no recourse to public money and there are landlords who do take advantage of the situation.”

In the last two years the Council’s Housing Standards Team has prosecuted 19 landlords for a total of 64 offences issuing a total of £26,250 in fines.

Ealing, Hounslow and Lewisham have been allocated the biggest slice of the £1.8million being made available by the government, with grants of £280,000 each.

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