THE BIG RETORT

The HMO trap: tenants in the crossfire How a dormant lease clause, licensing whiplash and POCA risk are squeezing homes out of the market. The Big Retort… An email from Lewisham’s Private Sector Housing Agency about an Additional HMO licence landed like a brick. More than a year after the council invited me to apply, it now says my application is rejected. It’s the freeholder’s doing. But—who’s the freeholder? “Lewisham Council… have confirmed that renting your property as an HMO would put you in breach of your lease and therefore put your lease at risk which can lead to forfeiture.” Then came the Hobson’s “choices”: Option 1: Withdraw and apply for a Temporary Exemption Notice (TEN) to “regularise” matters—i.e., kick out the sharers—avoiding enforcement for an unlicensed HMO. Option 2: Press on and risk forfeiture of the lease. Wait—what? This is the same council that extended licensing to my area and invited me to pay £1,500 to license three sharers—whose only offence was being...

Death scene at Albaraka Mosque   On 4 July 2025, Adam Rae Ursell , a 38-year-old actor, choreographer, and movement artist from South-East London, plunged from the roof of Albaraka Mosque in Lewisham. Despite the desperate efforts of ambulance crews, paramedics, and London’s Air Ambulance, he died at the scene. And since that day, a veil of silence has been drawn around the tragedy. TheBigRetort... Silence at the Scene It was a fine, sunny Friday afternoon when a body hit the pavement on a busy Lewisham Way. Despite the heavy police presence and paramedics battling to resuscitate the victim, it was all to no avail.  Police officers at the scene discouraged filming of the tragedy — and bodycams, which are usually on by default, were not recording. In the hours and days that followed, no media reported the death. The silence was almost total, as if a D-notice had been imposed. The Metropolitan Police responded to  The Big Retort : “For clarity, we proactively ...