REDBRIDGE Labour councillor and Ilford South MP Jas Athwal appears to be in breach of the Localism Act 2011 with his refusal (to which the council has agreed) to declare the properties he owns in the borough but doesn’t live in.
Such addresses used to be listed on his council register of interests. Without that information, none of last year’s stories about the shocking state of his 15 rented properties would have been possible. His former Redbridge council colleague Bayo Alaba, now Labour MP for Southend East and Rochford, did the same until he resigned as a councillor in September.
The MPs and the council claim they have an exemption through Section 32 of the Act, when “the nature of the interest [property] is such that the member… and the authority’s monitoring officer, consider that disclosure of the details of the interest could lead to the member… or a person connected with the member… being subject to violence or intimidation”.