Council urges ban on housing benefit payments to rogue landlords

Brent paid £500,000 to Bernard McGowan despite him failing the ‘fit and proper’ test

A London council that banned a rogue landlord and then directly paid him more than £500,000 in housing benefit has called on central government to legislate to prevent local authorities from making similar payments in the future.

The move by Brent came after the Guardian revealed how the borough had made repeated payments of taxpayer money to Bernard McGowan, who boasts a £30m property empire and failed Brent council’s “fit and proper” test in 2015.

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from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2RUGyb2
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