Lambeth Housing Tell Us the Truth
Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton, London. Tue 1 May 2018
I get to Lambeth Town Hall as the protest there is about to start
There are fewer there than I had expected - perhaps many had other
things to do on May Day, and the event
was planned at short notice, for a few days before the council elections
on May 5th. The Labour Party claims in
their manifesto they will "build 1,000 extra homes at council rent
by 2019" and that they are well on the way to
this target. A freedom of information request by Brixton Buzz finds
the number built so far as just 17, which makes
the manifesto statement "By early 2018 we had over 950 homes
completed, being built or already approved by
Lambeth’s cabinet" at best misleading. What it should
have said was that Lambeth Council is involved in a
massive programme of social cleansing, , handing over council property
for private development which will result
in a dramatic reduction in the number of homes at council rents over
the next few years", but perhaps that would
have got them rather fewer votes. It seems that even the 17 reported
under FOI is actually an over-estimate and
the actual figure is thought to be 8 or 9 - around a hundreth of the
figure used in the manifesto. That figure includes
many approved by the cabinet that will never be built as the developers
will claim they cannot make their
minimum allowed profit of 20% on them and will be excused from the
obligation - and they will instead become
high price private homes. People whose council homes are demolished
will mainly find they have to move to
outlying areas of London, and many will find themselves in high rent
private accomodation of a much lower
standard than their current homes. The protest called for a public
inquiry into Lambeth Labour’s housing policy,
an immediate halt to estate demolitions and a call to stop the privatisation
via Homes for Lambeth
which is leading to social cleansing.
Unfortunately few people in Lambeth are aware what is going on. It's
hard to believe a Labour council would
act like this - until it happens to you. And then it's too late. Nationally
Labour is changing, but only slowly and the
people who are doing these things still have control of the party machinery
although they are now in a minority.
There seems to be a long way to go in Lambeth before things can change for
the better.
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