March For Homes on 31 January

by Yousef Farah

March For Homes

Londoners will march on City Hall on 31 January 2015 to express their anguish and frustration with the ongoing housing crisis in the capital. 

The marchers are expected to voice their demands to the Mayor, including:

• the need for tougher regulations to control spiralling rent prices which have been increasing by 13% per annum since 2010

• also the building of new affordable council houses rather than demolishing the ones which already exist to replace them with expensive private developments

• rent cuts as opposed to benefit cuts

• the need for decent pay and conditions for housing and care workers as well as calling for the abolition of the controversial bedroom tax.

Defend Council Housing, the South London People’s Assembly and Unite Housing Workers are behind the march.

Glyn Robbins of Defend Council Housing wrote in the Morning Star on 10 January:

“Nothing affects people’s daily lives more than housing. It’s hard to have a decent life without a decent home. But there is a chasm between the level of public concern and the ability, or willingness, of our political system to solve the housing crisis.”

                                                

At Poached Creative, we support the aims of the March for Homes. Many of our trainees and staff have been affected by the housing crisis and we recognise the urgent need for a solution.

Lately our colleague John Watts participated and reported on a similar march, in solidarity with 93 families from the New Era Estate in Hoxton. They were battling against eviction by $11bn US investor Westbrook Partners.

Fortunately, months of protests and campaigns paid off. The new owner was announced as Dolphin Living part of the Dolphin Square Foundation, a charity dedicated to providing affordable homes for low and middle income Londoners.

The campaign received high level of publicity and was an eye opener to the public who are starting to realise that unless a permanent solution is found to our fragile and vulnerable housing state of affairs, the problem will continue and expand. Ultimately it is us and future generations who will suffer the consequences of unaffordable housing.

To find out more about the march visit the march official webpage.

Two rallies, one cause

by John Watts

In this centenary of the Great War, rallies held at head office of St Mungo’s Broadway on the last day of the charity workers seven day strike and the New Era Estate Residents outside Westbrook Partners offices at the end of 2014 can be seen as minor events. But what will history say? 

Coalition Chancellor Osborne at London’s Royal Albert Hall had declared hostilities earlier: “You have to get out there and put the business argument. Because plenty of pressure groups, plenty of trade unions and plenty of charities will put the counter view. It is a difficult decision to put your head above the parapet, but that is the only way we are going to win this argument.”

The management of St Mungo's Broadway and Westbrook took him at his word and stuck their heads above the parapet. St Mungo's Broadway, following a recent merger, imposed changes to staff terms, with "retrospective consultation", announced their intention to stop negotiating with Unite union, cuts to pay and conditions including a £5,000 pay cut for new employees, and a £30,000 pay rise for the CEO.

Property firm Westbrook Partners bought the New Era Estate in Hoxton, home to 92 families with a 70 years history of affordable housing. House prices across London rose by 20% in that year with wages drastically failing to keep pace, and then Westbrook announced a massive TREBLE rent increase! The seven-day strike at St Mungo's Broadway had massive support from its workers, charities, clients, local councils and the labour movement as a whole. The threat of further industrial action, and the solidarity expressed for it, made St Mungo's Broadway management decide that it had stuck its head over the parapet long enough.

The rally by the New Era Estate residents and the handing in of the petition to Downing Street, attracted massive media attention helped by certain celebrities voicing their support for their cause, and the fact that 300,000 Londoners had signed the petition.

Westbrook, desperate to duck, sold out to Dolphin Square Foundation, a housing charity committed to, “a rent policy that is demonstrably fair and that decides rents on the basis of Londoners’ earnings rather than market values”.

Housing is on the front line of poverty in Britain, and London in particular. The charities know that Osborne’s ‘business argument’ is the root cause of the increased need for their services. The victories of St Mungo's Broadway workers and New Era Estate residents may be historical aberrations, or they just might be the beginning when these ‘vested interests’ turn the ‘business argument’ on to its hollow hypocritical head.

“HOMES FOR PLEBS!” The rallying cry rang out in front of Downing Street, and least we forget, for the time being is also home to Chancellor Osbourne, I wonder if he heard it?

Hackney residents seek a new era for affordable rent

By John Watts

Residents of the New Era Estate in Hoxton held a family-led demonstration with their supporters on 1 December, calling on Westbrook Partners to keep rents affordable, following their recent purchase of the property. Families living on the estate say that are at risk of being made homeless by the proposed treble rent increases.

The protest began outside the Westbrook Partners offices in Berkley Square, Mayfair where they held a rally, before walking to Downing Street to hand in a 300,000 signature petition.

The New Era Estate in Hoxton has a history of affordable housing and is home to 93 families, many of whom have lives there for generations. Linsey Garett, chairwoman of the New Era residents association and a young mother who works for the NHS, said: “My parents live on this estate too. There are families like mine who have this area in their blood.”

The treatment of the New Era Estate residents by Westbrook Partners has again raised the issue of gentrification in the capital. Jules Pipe, the Mayor of Hackney recently said that the treatment of the New Era Estate tenants is unfair and that the proposed rent increases are ‘tearing the heart out of Hoxton’.

Their story has come to represent the plight of low-income Londoners in the face of huge rent hikes, cuts to housing benefit and the insatiable appetite of foreign investors for London properties, pushing house prices well out of reach for local families.

The steep rise in house prices in London has seen rapid social and economic change over the last decade. Property prices this year alone have risen by 20%, whilst wages have drastically failed to keep pace. The National Housing Federation has warned that you’ll now need to earn more than £100,000 a year to afford a typical 80% mortgage in London.

Long-standing communities are being torn apart in what many people at the protest said was an outrage. An elderly lady attending the protest, who didn’t wish to be named, said that she had two daughters and their families living on the estate who were not able to come because they were working on zero hours contracts in low paid jobs and couldn’t afford to take the time off, so she had come in their place.

Russell Brand, who has been campaigning passionately on behalf of the residents and seemed to have been the focus of the massive media presence rather than the petition or the New Era Estate residents, again reiterated his support and the ‘awful way’ Westbrook was treating them.

The issue is no longer just something affecting the low paid. Key workers and those on an average income are also being forced out of their local areas.

When the petition was being handed in a chant went up of, “HOMES FOR PLEBS! HOMES FOR PLEBS!” which brought smiles to the Downing Street Protection squad. Even the police know that key workers like themselves need affordable housing if they are to continue to live and work in London.

As a Hackney-based business and social enterprise that works with long-term unemployed and marginalised people, Poached Creative and our writers are closely following the New Era Housing saga. Read former trainee Sam Hooper's recent guest post on In My Shoes and look out for our forthcoming feature in the next issue of The Pavement.