Monthly Archives: December 2018

The future of Carpenters Estate is still on shaky ground as Newham’s housing crisis continues

Carpenters Estate, housing crisis, Newham council

“I will continue to put housing as one of my top priorities to tackle the housing crisis head on.” This is what Rokhsana Fiaz the Mayor of Newham promised when responding to a report by the housing charity Shelter released in November, which confirmed Newham as having the worst homelessness rate in Britain with over 14,500 people stuck in temporary accommodation. With the reality of homelessness ever present on the streets, the campaign cautiously welcomed the news last month that the new Mayor was putting on hold the tendering out process for Carpenters Estate.

A consultation about the future of the estate has been spearheaded by Rokhsana Fiaz who has stated that she is open to new ideas about estate redevelopment. However Newham council is heading for a PR nightmare with questions mounting about what any possible redevelopment will look like and who will pay. The council has pledged that 50% of any new homes built on the estate will be affordable. Yet according to the Carpenter’s Neighbourhood Forum, demolition of the entire estate looks  likely as the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) who has planning responsibilities for the area has demanded 2,300 homes are built on the site, with ‘either 35% or 50%’ homes for social rent. Note that there is not even a solid commitment to the 50% social rented homes Newham claims will be built. Vague numbers and bewildering prospect for residents who are fed up with being ignored and patronised by arrogant Labour councillors.

The remaining residents of Carpenters Estate are currently left in a state of limbo worrying about the fate of their homes and community. They have spent decades fighting to save their homes whilst the council under the much loathed Robin Wales, harassed and evicted residents, leaving around 400 flats empty.  The current consultation could turn out to be yet another PR exercise. Now is the time for new administration in Newham to be showing firm political leadership and commitment to saving public land from private developers in order to keep our much needed council housing stock in the public domain. The demand for council housing in Newham is high and publicly owned land should not be up for grabs. Look at what happened at Woodberry Down estate in Hackney to see how estate demolition can lead to a loss of homes for social rent.

Close attention must be given to all concerns and new ideas must be found. Architects for Social Housing is doing important work on this issue. The cost effectiveness of demolition needs to be thoroughly interrogated. The council should be honest about what the whole sordid regeneration game is all about– as lining the pockets of private companies is not in the public’s interest.

This story is being repeated around the country as council estates are flattened and councillors shrug their shoulders or rub their hands with glee. This is also a story about  a neglected council estate and a burgeoning housing crisis, plus a national Labour party promising to ensure that no social housing will be lost in any redevelopment schemes if they ever manage to get into power. However The Labour party’s Green paper on housing published in April 2018 doesn’t really promise to save our existing council housing stock and says “where proposed estate regeneration scheme involves demolition of existing homes, a Labour Government will ensure there is support for the proposal through a ballot of residents…” How does this policy begin to tie in with what is happening at a local level in Stratford in Newham?  We can understand this question more when we begin to look at who has been advising Newham council on the future prospects for Carpenters Estate.

Focus E15 Campaign was introduced to Deborah Heenan in October at a meeting to discuss housing issues with the Mayor. Deborah Heenan is the Major Projects Director for Newham Council and is taking a lead on Carpenters Estate redevelopment. She certainly has a significant history in working on housing redevelopment schemes. According to her LinkedIn profile she was Strategy Director at Berkeley Homes in 2007-2008 (the company responsible for providing fewer social rented homes on Woodberry Downs estate in Hackney, see above), from 2012 she has been the Director of Wichelstowe in Swindon which is the largest housing scheme built on public land in Britain and from 2014 she’s been CEO of Forward Swindon, an Arms Length Management Organisation which was handed responsibility by Swindon Conservative council for ‘regenerating’ Swindon town centre.

Does she represent a new kind of thinking?  Will she even consider credible, alternative and cost effective plans to demolition? Will she embody the people centred socialism that the Labour Party professes to represent? We seriously doubt it.

What shall we do now?
The London Legacy Development Coorporation are also carrying out their own consultation. If you are a Carpenters resident or a stakeholder in the area please email, before Sunday 23 December 2018  planningpolicy@londonlegacy.co.uk  (subject heading, Local Plan Review).

The Carpenters Neighbourhood forum have issued the following example below (adapt as you see fit):

Dear LLDC,

As a resident/stakeholder of the Greater Carpenters Neighbourhood Area, I would like to make the representations below in response to the draft changes to the LLDC Local Plan. My response concerns change reference number C301. Site Allocation SA3.4: Greater Carpenters District. Type of Change: Major.

‘The Site Allocation is expected to yield a minimum of 2,300 new homes (gross) with an affordable housing threshold of 35% or 50% on public sector land, in accordance with Policy H.2’

I do not agree with this new site allocation of ‘a minimum of 2,300 new homes (gross)’ for the Greater Carpenters District, as this would mean demolition of existing homes. It seems impossible to build so many new homes in our area without drastically affecting our community for the worse, unnecessarily forcing households to move, destroying many social homes with inadequate replacement and jeopardising the situation of leaseholders and freeholders. We have been fighting as a community for many years to prevent such destructive change and will continue to do so.

Regards

[NAME]
[address]

Together we are stronger. Save Carpenters Estate.

News from Focus E15 Campaign

Carpenters Estate, housing crisis, labour, london, Newham council, single mothers, social cleansing, update, women

Come to the campaign meeting this Saturday to make plans for 2019.
Saturday 8 December 2.30-4.30pm
Sylvia’s Corner, 97 Aldworth Road, London E15 4DN
Hear about the effects of poor housing and insecure conditions on children and young people. A young speaker, who has recently been supported by our campaign will talk about her experience of standing up for her right to be housed near to her school. A speaker from Housing and Mental Health Network provides the bigger context, and also hear report of research on anger and how this affects us in housing.
Plus more on the Labour council, the Carpenters Estate and plans for 2019….

RESIDENTS FROM BRIMSTONE HOUSE STAND TOGETHER

Residents of Brimstone House have maintained pressure on John Gray, Newham’s Cabinet representative for Housing, to hold him to his word that the conservatory within the building will be cleared out and returned to a children’s play area, and the locked park outside the building will finally be opened up for the children to play in.

It is grotesque to think of the unsuitable and cramped conditions that families with young children are being forced into in Brimstone House while the play areas are kept locked up.

Therefore, on 1 December, residents of Brimstone House and Focus E15 campaign entered the opened park and the children played. Then we went to visist the conservatory in the building….. it was cleared out, but still boarded up and locked…. the next day however, the boarding had been taken down….this is a step forward and now it must stay  open and be filled  with toys and fun activities for the children.

Remember that Brimstone House is formerly Focus E15 hostel/foyer where the campaign started five years ago, when young mothers and pregnant women refused to be moved out of London.

Five years on, with a change in council and mayor, that fight is still going on, as families who refuse out of area housing are outrageously labelled intentionally homeless and face the real possibility of the council discharging their duty to house them, this is in the context of Newham as one of the poorest boroughs in London with worsening homelessness, overcrowding and social cleansing.

Read about this struggle here:
https://focuse15.org/2018/12/03/stuck-in-limbo-at-brimstone-house-newham/

And put it in the context of the ongoing revelations of financial mismanagement of immense proportions in the borough. Expose this rotten system….
https://www.newhamrecorder.co.uk/council-investment-properties-1-5804846

It is clear that unless we fight back and resist, more and more people will be forced into unsafe, overcrowded, slum accommodation or made homeless.
We must fight for a world where land is held as a common good and housing as a human right. Which is also why we are campaigning for every new home on the Carpenters Estate to be a council home at council rent.

Capitalism is theft!
Stand with Focus E15 campaign on the streets, in action and at the meeting this Saturday and join the resistance!

 

Stuck in limbo at Brimstone House, Newham.

evictions, families, gender, hostel, housing crisis, intentional homelessness, london, Newham council, personal story, single mothers, social cleansing

A young mother has been living at Brimstone House Hostel in Newham for over a year. We wrote about her predicament of being labelled with ‘intentional homelessness’ in September. 3 months on she is finding it difficult to manage this uncertainty and insecurity. These are her words:

I am a single mother living in a bedsit for the last 15 months. I have been on a emotional roller-coaster back and forth with the council with still no solution in sight. When will all the emotional stress be over? Despite showing documented evidence of my connection with the local area, the Council does not take this into account and have made me two out-of-borough offers of accommodation which I have had to refuse due to medical reasons and the need for my local connections and support.

I then realised that the council’s ‘solution’ to this was to discharge their duty of care to me, a decision which would put me and my daughter out on the streets. I was told I had the right to a suitability review, which was kinda pointless because the council had already made the decision to end their duty of care even before the suitability request was reviewed.

After a week’s consideration, the review officer sent an email saying the review was unsuccessful (no surprises there). I feel that the review officer did not follow appropriate inquiries into my reasons regarding why I needed to stay living in Newham. He then made the decision that I had to leave the property at a particular date (that didn’t exist!) so after a few emails back and forth to clarify the actually day and date I had to leave, I was finally given a date of Wednesday 28th of November…

It was so heartbreaking to have to tell my daughter we are moving but not knowing where we are going – it makes me feel so bad as a mother the fact that I can’t find a decent, suitable and affordable home for my child to live an ordinary life like any normal family …three days prior to my eviction date the manager for the building called to say my eviction is on hold and she will be in touch over the next few weeks …but what does this really mean? I’m stuck in a limbo! At the moment I’m just not sure about what is going on with my case. I am really confused as to what this all means and I am not sure if I still have to leave, I just don’t know.

This mother attends college in Newham and has her child enrolled in a local Newham school. They need to be housed in their community. Say no to social cleansing!

Come and discuss how to take this case forward at our next public meeting on Saturday 8 December at Sylvia’s Corner, 97 Aldworth Rd, E15 4DN 2.30pm.