Housing Swap

[magicbeatle]

My wife and I have found the perfect Council swap. We live in a big 3 bed Flat in East London. We have 1 bedroom unused, lots of cupboard space a balcony and a massive Kitchen. Its really too big for us, and a Family with kids would benefit more out of it. Our own kids have just left home, so we decided to swap to a smaller place in North London to be nearer work. The couple we are swapping with have 3 young children. Two boys and a girl. They have a Two bedroom flat with a tiny Kitchen, no Balcony and no Cupboard space. Hwever, it will do us because of its location. Their children have the bedrooms, while mum and dad sleep in the living room. One of the boys is ill, and has to have special food prepared for him. He also has his own Social worker. Needless to say, they are struggling. They love our place, and want to swap. It would be ideal for them, and would solve all their problems. They have been trying to swap for 3 years, but always get turned down because of the tiny Kitchen. We are the only ones who dont care about this. If we swap, everyones happy. We put in the forms with Camden Council, and they turned it down. They said my wife and I do not need another bedroom, as we have no kids living with us. The fact is, we are down-sizing from 3 bedrooms to 2. And we do need two, as my wife suffers from deppresion and often cant sleep. She also suffers from other ailments and gets Dissability living allowance. I have to sleep in 1 of the other bedrooms most nights. The other thing is, by turning us down, they are also trapping the other couple in their Flat possibly for good, as they would now not only have to find a couple who wanted to downsize to a smaller Flat with a tiny Kitchen, that couple would also have to have kids! They dont hold much chance. When they told their childs Social worker, she went mad and phoned Camden council, shouting at them. Camden council relented, and said they would let the swap go ahead if my wife obtained copies of her full medical records as proof as to why we need 2 bedrooms. We said no problem. (how wrong we were!) We went to our GP, and he said no. He said he has to have a formal request from Camden Council if they want copies of them. Weve sent a letter to Camden Council explaining this. However, Camden council are unhelpful as they dont want the swap to go ahead anyway, and I cant see them requesting this and we will be denied. This is so unfair! No one wins in this situation. Any ideas?

[rowanwitch]

I'd add in the letter to MP as well sometimes they can put a little more pressure on the appropriate department. 'you both might need family members to stay to provide additional support when your wife is really unwell...' I've seen that one work before too