FURTHER UPDATE: Dismay at closure of Brent Law Centre

Staff protest in 2011

After being hit with funding cuts and warnings of imminent closure for almost a decade I understand that Brent Law Centre has finally closed its doors.

Law Centres have been affected by cuts in funding via local authorities and through the Legal Aid Reform Act.  Neighbouring Barnet lost its Law Centre a while ago and Lambeth was forced to close last year.

Brent Law Centre had to stop direct applications for help due to funding cuts and only accept referrals via Brent Citizens Advice Bureau which itself was overloaded with cases LINK.  The only alternative was the mainly on-line BAM (Brent Advice Matters).

Whatever the government says austerity is far from over and it is shameful that an organisation that helped the victims of austerity is now itself a victim.  Brent Law Centre joins Brent Disability Concern that had to close its office when the NHS demanded a market rent LINK and the Council refused help,  and Brent Energy Solutions  LINK which limped along for a while after Brent Council cut its grant but eventually had to close.

This morning Cllr Ketan Sheth tweeted:

Very disappointed that the Brent Community Law Centre has closed. It was much used and appreciated lifeline for many, many residents over the past decades and is truly sad news...

While Cllr Roxanne Mashari responded:

I can't believe this was allowed to happen.

In response Brent Cabinet member Cllr Tom Miller  told his colleagues that he had outlined the issues affecting the Law Centre in the Labour Group and at Willesden Green ward meetings and said he was willing to answer their questions on the way forward.

He said:

The Council has bought the building as part of a plan aimed at rescuing the organisation and worked out in partnership with it. Brent Community Law Centre had become financially unviable for several reasons which I won't go into here.

He told Wembley Matters:

My colleagues are totally correct that this is an important institution worthy of protection. There are financial issues considerably bigger than just the relationship with Brent. I think there are short and long term solutions too, but right now it's crisis support.

Veteran campaigner Sarah Cox reacted on Facebook:

 I was dismayed the other day to see both Brent Law Centre and the nearby Citizens Advice Bureau in Willesden High Rd closed. Never has it been so necessary for people to have access to the help and advice these two organisations provided. Austerity, the new racist immigration laws, the punitive and unjust Universal Credit system all put people into terrible situations where they desperately need help.

UPDATE:

According to the Kilburn Times today (March 11th)  LINK the Law Centre building was sold to Brent Council in January:

A council spokesperson told the Kilburn Times that they could not comment on the building purchase, adding: 'We have been working with BCLC to identify alternative ways for it to deliver services to Brent residents and will continue to support them in whatever way we can.'

Nimrod Ben-Cnaan, head of policy at the Law Centres Network, said: 'With these financial challenges and other considerations in mind, the law centre's trustees have decided that closing the service at this time was the best way forward, when it is still solvent and an orderly closure could be maintained to protect clients.' 

The Brent Council statements raises more questions that it answers and given Ketan Sheth's concern I hope that the Council's decisions on this are called in for public scrutiny.

It would be a scandal if the Law Centre building, which has served Brent residents needing local support and advice for nearly 50 years ends up as a block of unaffordable flats and legal advice continuing as only a skeleton service from premises as yet unknown.

Brent voluntary organisations face crisis as NHS Estate's Market Rent policy is implemented

The NHS Estates programme is scheduled to be completed by June 2017, according to their website which will mean 6 or 7 Brent voluntary organisations providing back-up health services will be faced with paying market rents from April 2017.

Many will not be able to afford them and will be faced with finding new bases despite the Sustainability and Transformation Plan being based on collaboration enhanced by location in the same premises.

At a previous Scrutiny Meeting, it was reported that The Willesden Centre for Health and Care (with its PFI legacy) was "presenting a particular challenge" but the Brent CCG also reported "that plans were in place" to sort it out.  The CCG agreed to "detail in its commissioning intentions how it will use the Estates strategy to support and enable the voluntary sector" (Agenda item 5, NHS  Estate in Brent, 23/11/16.)

Brent Advocacy Concerns, one of the voluntary organisations affected, has approached Brent Healthwatch and Brent CVS for assistance, so far without success. 

Assurances had been given when I raised the issue previously that assistance would be given to voluntary organisation to enable them to be part of contracted services. access grants to enable them to be able to pay market rents, improve their financial viability or to share sessional space at centres.  So far none of these options have resulted in concrete proposals.

Brent Advocacy Concern meet tomorrow lunchtime with the shadow of closure hanging over them with little information on which to plan their future.