Leeds woman claims sex workers cost her free home repairs that she was due through a council grant

The woman was entitled to a council grant for repairs in 2001, but “problems with street sex workers operating in the area” stopped the work going ahead, the Local Government Ombudsman said.

A report by the Ombudsman, which deals with complaints about local authorities, said the woman had recently been told she was no longer entitled to the grant by Leeds City Council.

A loan scheme for home improvements was brought into replace the grant system in 2005.

However, the Ombudsman has refused to formally investigate the woman’s complaint, because the matter concerns events of more than 20 years ago.

The Ombudsman said it saw “No reason why she could not have complained sooner about these.”

The report did not explain what the repairs in question were, or why issues with nearby sex work might have stopped them from taking place.

It was also not clear whereabouts in the city the anonymous complainant lived.

The Leeds authorities’ approach to prostitution has been under the spotlight for much of the 21st century, however.

In 2014, a managed red light zone, where sex work went unprosecuted at certain times of the day, was controversially introduced in part of Holbeck.

It was hoped the approach would make life safer for women involved in the trade and reduce crime.

However, the policy was abandoned in 2021, having been suspended at the start of the Covid pandemic the previous year.

The council said then it would move to a “city-wide plan” to help sex workers across Leeds, with the number of those operating in Holbeck having fallen during the lifetime of the scheme.