{"id":2359,"date":"2014-12-02T12:18:20","date_gmt":"2014-12-02T12:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=2359"},"modified":"2014-12-02T12:20:18","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T12:20:18","slug":"shall-moved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=2359","title":{"rendered":"We shall not be moved"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Yesterday (Monday December 1) more than 500 people took to the streets to show their support for the 93 families from Hoxton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s New Era estate whose homes have been bought up by American firm Westbrook Partners.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Single mum and resident Lindsey Garrett, a Unite member, led the march to Downing Street where a petition with more than 300,000 signatures was handed in to David Cameron.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As she marched with her friends and neighbours she shouted messages aimed at Westbrook including \u00e2\u20ac\u0098We shall not be moved\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some residents have lived on the estate for more than 70 years. Westbrook plans to renovate the flats and then let them for as much as three times the current rent, making them totally unaffordable to the families who live there.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve lived on this estate for over 30 years,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 one of the New Era residents told us. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bMy niece lives with me. They want to put me in a room in sheltered housing. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no room for her to come with me.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite has been at the forefront of the campaign supporting its community members affected by the London housing crisis.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat we are seeing here is the tip of the iceberg,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Pilgrim Tucker, Unite community coordinator. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe housing crisis spreads right across the capital and communities in every borough are under threat as fat cat companies buy up public land for redevelopment.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hackney North MP Diane Abbot and comedian Russell Brand joined the front of the march with the residents and their children to show their support for the community, which faces being torn apart by \u00e2\u20ac\u0098corporate greed\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bA safe home is a human right, not a privilege,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Jim Kelly, Unite London chair. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite will continue to drive the campaign for affordable housing forward.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The shadow minister for London, Sadiq Khan, called on Westbrook to scrap its plans to evict 93 families from the estate and instead sell the homes to a social landlord that can keep the community together.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fantastic that we have backing from Labour MPs,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added Kelly. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut what we need now is to continue to put pressure on Boris Johnson and David Cameron. They must be made accountable for the London housing crisis.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite is calling for a massive council house building programme and the regulation of landlords with the emphasis on rent controls which work in Germany and Sweden.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is just the beginning of a growing surge in London renters who are not prepared to stand by while our city is socially cleansed by the ultra-rich,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added Tucker. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need social housing, not social cleansing.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday (Monday December 1) more than 500 people took to the streets to show their support for the 93 families from Hoxton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s New Era estate whose homes have been bought up by American firm Westbrook Partners.     Single mum and resident Lindsey Garrett, a Unite member, led the march to Downing Street where a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[109,131],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2359"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2361,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2359\/revisions\/2361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}