Family of eight ‘squashed’ into three bed home moan migrants ‘get a better deal’ after council refuses them a bigger home

A FAMILY demanding a bigger home claim have hit out at the council claiming: "You prefer migrants".

Jason Romp and wife Joanne, 48, have questioned if they are "the wrong colour" after a London council turned down their request for a bigger house despite them being 'forced' to sleep on the setee.

The pair have been living in cramped conditions ever since 2001 when they took in their two grandchildren Charnie, 13, and Charlotte Coleman, seven, saying their parents weren’t able to care for them.

With son Charlie, 21, and daughter Stevi-Ann, 19, also living in the house things soon became even more cramped and Jason and Joanne ended up sleeping at either end of the corner sofa every night.

Earlier this year Charlie and his girlfriend Tiffany Tasker, 21, also had a baby, Charley-Rose, meaning the mother and child now share a room with him as well at the three-bedroom terraced home in Kidbrooke, South East London.

Despite the eight-strong family living in such close quarters, Royal Borough of Greenwich Council has knocked back their requests for a bigger home.

Self-employed window cleaner Jason told The Sun: “Since we took in the kids we have been fighting for a bigger house but we’re just getting knocked back every time.

“The council has come out loads of times but said it isn’t overcrowding because we 'don’t meet the criteria’.

“We’re not racist but it makes you think are we the wrong colour or something?

"We don’t sponge off the state, we are a working family, but it just riles you when you see in the papers foreign people getting a £450,000 house.

"We’re not after that - we just need a house that has enough rooms."

According to Jason, wife Joanne also suffers from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Charlotte has ADHD, epilepsy and foetal alcohol syndrome because her mum consumed alcohol while she was pregnant and doctors have said she needs her own space.

The 44-year-old added: “We’re living out of boxes – we need a five-bedroom house or at least a four to make things easier.

“How we are still together, I don’t know. The pressure on us has nearly split us up. We don’t want to give the kids back but we might have to if they can’t find us a bigger property as they’d get the space they need that is suitable and safe with a foster family.”

The family is also living in fear that Charlotte and Charnie’s dad may keep coming back to their house issuing threats as he has previously served time for firearms offences.

They claim he visited the property on Christmas Day last year and was eventually taken away by police.

A spokesman for Royal Borough of Greenwich Council said: “Following a full assessment of their housing needs, the family has been awarded a priority for rehousing and are therefore eligible to bid for suitable properties, advertised on the Royal Borough’s Choice Based Lettings (CBL) system, that will meet their housing needs.

“We are experiencing a very high level of demand for the available social housing and there is an acute shortage of larger properties. Therefore it is very important that applicants for rehousing are as flexible as possible so that they can enhance their prospects of being rehoused.”

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