London’s “social cleansing”

Housing activists have occupied an empty flat on the Guinness Trust Estate in Brixton in protest against the removal of families from 45 flats and an eviction set for this Thursday (February 19).  Guinness Partnership, a housing trust, plans to demolish the 390 flat estate and replace it with 487 new flats for sale and rent.

It has already started moving out some tenants and rehousing them. But the Trust is refusing to rehouse families in 45 flats who have been ordered to leave by April.

These tenants have “assured” tenancies which give them more limited legal rights.

Some of whom have been residents for over 10 years and have children at local schools.

The removals and eviction are to make way for a larger new development. Around half of the new builds – 256 – will be social housing, fewer than at present, and the rest – 244 – private flats for sale.

What is happening in Brixton has echoes in other estates across the capital. Housing costs have been soaring and social housing under pressure.

Pilgrim Tucker, Unite community co-ordinator, says many people consider what is happening across London as “social cleansing”, pushing all but the wealthy out of London.

“Soaring London property prices and rents are pushing housing costs well beyond what most people would consider ‘affordable’ ,” she told Unite Live.

“Boris Johnson is driving the trend where London housing estates are being demolished and re-developed. Some of the new builds are given labels such as “affordable” but they are far from affordable for most people.

“Under new definitions, ‘affordable rent’ means 80 per cent of the private market rate, rather than typical 30-40 per cent of market rates which would be classified as “social rents”. Recently, Westminster council told London Mayor Boris Johnson that his plans for “affordable rents” set at 80 per cent of the market rate would be out of reach for many.

“The council estimated that under that definition of affordable, a tenant in a 3 bedroom house in the borough would need an income of ÂŁ109,000 a year to afford the rent. Rents at that level can only be afforded by those in the top pay bands.”

Social housing in London is being lost at an alarming rate. A report from the Greater London Assembly published last week found we had lost at least 8,000 social housing units in the last decade.

“It’s being made worse by welfare and housing benefit cuts” says Pilgrim Tucker. “When people are rehoused they can be pushed out of central London to places like Enfield, one of the few places in Greater London where rents are less expensive.

“But people are being rehoused much further away, such as Birmingham. Families are being uprooted and moved to places where they have no connections of any kind.

“That’s one reason why Guinness tenants in Brixton are fighting to stay local. All they want is to stay in secure local accommodation and I believe the Guinness Partnership needs to act in a socially responsible way and rehouse these tenants locally.”

Estate resident Betiel Mehari, a Unite community member said, “Guinness deliberately phased out secure tenants and replaced them with insecure ‘temporary’ tenants when they started planning this regeneration. That was because they were reducing the number of flats at social rents by 90.”

Betiel is scathing about the council response to the prospect of so many families being made homeless: “The council granted the planning permission that allowed them to do this and now they tell vulnerable families being evicted not to come to them for rehousing because there isn’t any in Lambeth.

“Lambeth council have sent a letter clearly telling the tenants to find their own private flats if they want to stay in Lambeth because they will only give them temporary accommodation outside London.

“Everyone wants to pass the buck but these tenants are not ‘temporary’ they have been here up to 12 years. Guinness should be building social rented housing not private flats and even if it is not illegal, it is immoral for them to treat people like this.”

In a statement Guinness Partnership told Unite Live “We understand this is a difficult time for the Assured Shorthold Tenants at Loughborough Park.  To help make the move as easy as possible we have increased the financial support available, extended the leave date by a month to the end of April 2015 and worked with the council to improve the housing options available.

“We have been clear from the outset with the Assured Shorthold Tenants that they would not be entitled to be rehoused at Loughborough Park due to the temporary nature of their tenancies, which they agreed when they moved in.

“We have also given them more than a year’s notice of when they need to vacate their homes. We encourage anyone who is unsure of their options to contact us as soon as possible so that we can offer them advice and support.”

Cllr Matthew Bennett, Lambeth cabinet member for Housing, told Unite Live, “The council has no jurisdiction in directing Guinness Partnership to take a particular course of action in relation to their AST tenants.

“However, we have consistently made it clear that we expect Guinness to make every effort to support them into alternative accommodation and, further, we have negotiated a series of additional safeguards so that court proceedings are delayed to allow this to happen.

“The council does of course have a duty to offer advice and assistance to households who are homeless or threatened with homelessness, and any remaining AST tenants will be afforded this help through the Homelessness team should this be needed.”

Guinness residents and supporters will be meeting at 9.30am Thursday February 19 at Elveden House, Loughborough Park, Brixton, SW9 8NN to prevent the first eviction taking place – bailiffs are due to arrive to evict a family at 10am.

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