Dear Newham Council, Newham Labour Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz, Director of Housing Darren Levy, Head of Housing Shaban Mohammed and Labour MP Lyn Brown,

The residents of Brimstone House, 10 Victoria Street, E15 need urgent rehousing.

As an emergency situation, it may be considered tolerable, as a living arrangement, it is cruel and punishing.

There is already a legal challenge underway but no action from Newham Labour council and now the residents are speaking out again.

We ask for a meeting with the Head of Housing, the Director of Housing and the Mayor of Newham.

This is how the Labour-run borough of Newham sees itself (https://www.newham.gov.uk/contact-information/vision-1)
‘Newham is a borough with a radical vision to build a better and brighter future. We are a diverse and aspirational place. By putting people at the heart of everything we do, we aim to enable all our residents to reach their potential and thrive.’

Tell that to the mothers struggling up flights of stairs with buggies and babies and toddlers and shopping as the lift is broken again. It is not possible and it is not safe.

Tell that to the mothers who are having to study overnight using their cookers as a table, because they don’t have room to sit in the main room, and don’t want to put on the light as the children are asleep.

Tell that to the mothers who are co-sleeping with one or two children and who have no privacy in front of their children, not appropriate, particular in front of boys.

Tell that to the families with exhausted parents and traumatised anxious children who have to be pulled out and rushed downstairs as the fire alarm in the building keeps going off.

Tell that to the families who can’t wash their clothes or their children’s clothes properly as there are not enough washing machines, they are substandard and very expensive.

Tell that to the families paying very high heating costs in Brimstone House, 10 Victoria Street with an electric key system that consumes large sums of money.

Tell that to the families who can’t all sit down to eat together because Newham Labour council doesn’t allow them more than two chairs in their room or flat.

Tell that to the families who feel dumped and abandoned in Brimstone House, with no knowledge of who their housing officer is, who have their emails unanswered, and who have no bidding numbers.

Tell that to the families who have been offered places out of borough and out of London, when their support networks, their work, their family and their children’s schools are in the borough.

Tell that to the families in the cramped and damp rooms with children who are forced to isolate during the pandemic.

Tell us all why the empty council homes on the Carpenters are not being used while a solution to that estate is being found. And what about all the other empty homes around the borough…

If Newham Labour council wants to be a radical council building a better future, then it must speak out and speak up and defend the rights of all its residents.

As Assata Shakur said:
It is our duty to fight for our freedom, it is our duty to to win, we must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.

We ask for a meeting with the Head of Housing, the Director of Housing and the Mayor of Newham.

Thank you
from the families of Brimstone House, Victoria Street with full support of Focus E15 campaign