Reform council leader George Finch criticised for encouraging anti-migrant vigilantism over plan to publish HMO addresses

A Reform council leader has been accused of “deliberately” encouraging vigilantism among anti-migrant activists with his plans to publish a list of Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs) in the area.

George Finch, who is leader of both Warwickshire County Council and Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, announced at a council meeting last night that he plans to publish a list of HMOs across Nuneaton and Bedworth borough. 

Finch has said that he wants to publish a list of HMOs for “transparency” reasons.

He said: “The public have asked for transparency, they don’t know who lives in these HMOs and it is right that we tell them the facts.”

The 20-year-old councillor added: “We don’t know who these people are who commit atrocious crimes.”

The Reform council leader’s decision comes after an asylum seeker living in an HMO in Nuneaton was found guilty and jailed for raping a 12-year-old girl last year.

Green Party councillor Keith Kondakor said that HMOs in Nuneaton and Bedworth house asylum seekers, vulnerable women, disabled children, as well as professionals who live in housing that happens to be classified as an HMO. 

The Reform-run council pledged to introduce an Article 4 direction, which would make it more difficult to set up HMOs in the borough. In the meantime, Finch has said 

Kondakor told Left Foot Forward: “There’ll be a list of maybe 200 addresses produced, all of which will then be at risk of vigilante attacks and misinformation.”

Kondakor said that after the rape, the police had to drive around HMOs, making sure people weren’t gathering there. 

“It was a major distraction of police time and all the people in the accommodation felt unsafe,” he said. 

The Green councillor called Finch’s plan to publish a list of the HMOs “worrying” and “absolutely reckless”, adding “it won’t do our town any good at all”.

Asked if Finch is encouraging people to go to the addresses, Kondakor said he thinks he is.

“I think he’s doing it deliberately,” he said. 

“He wants other people to do the dirty work. It’s like when we had the protest and things, he always keeps that bit of distance from anything illegal, but actually, he’s putting the petrol on the fire effectively. He does it all the time,” Kondakor added.

Labour councillor Brady Hughes called Finch’s plan “dangerous,” branding it a “populist policy to appeal to Reform voters and incite hatred”.

“It’s going to create vigilantism,” she added.

Hughes said: “They’re [Reform] deliberately trying to link these with asylum seekers, of which there are not many in this town, and my fear it is just going to create more division.”

Finch has said the list of HMOs will be published as soon as next week. 

Hughes said that Reform “can’t do it, not without a risk assessment by council officers, not without input from police”.

She added: “I think it is quite worrying that they’re trying to force officers’ hands into publishing the list.”

The Labour councillor said Finch keeps bringing up the case of the rape of the 12-year-old, “He’s got to stop using that because he keeps bringing it up and he forgets who the victim is in all of this”. 

Hughes added: “It’s wrong and he’s not a nice person to be quite frank.”

Labour and Green Party councillors in Nuneaton and Bedworth support tightening up HMO licensing and looking at bringing in an Article 4 directive, but strongly oppose publishing any addresses.

Hughes said that two Conservative councillors who attended the meeting were in favour of Finch’s plan.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward