New Era residents march to Downing Street to hand in 300,000 signature petition
New Era Estate residents on the march to Downing Street. Photograph: Glenn McMahon
Residents from Hoxton’s New Era Estate marched to Downing Street yesterday to hand in a 300,000 signature petition calling on David Cameron to pressure new owners Westbrook Partners into keeping their rents affordable.
They had earlier rallied outside Westbrook’s offices in Mayfair joined by hundreds of supporters including comedian Russell Brand calling on UK chief Mark Donnor to meet tenants and “do the right thing”.
The American property speculator, which bought the 93-flat estate in March, is expected to start evicting tenants next year before refurbishing the properties and renting them out at market rates.
Residents fear their rents will likely treble, forcing them into hostels, homes for the elderly or out of London where rents are cheaper.
In a message to Westbrook, Lindsey Garrett, who has lived on the estate for 22-years and has co-led the campaign since July, said to the crowd:
“We are a community. We’ve lived on the New Era estate for many years. We are asking you to do the right thing and leave our homes alone. This is for our children’s future. Leave London alone.
“We’re asking Westbrook to address the residents, come and meet with us and do the right thing.”
Lindsey Garrett addresses the crowd at the New Era protest march. Photograph: Glenn McMahon
As the demonstration made its way to Downing Street a police escort temporarily blocked off roads to let the good-natured protest move unhindered through the busy streets.
Ms Garrett said the government needs to bring in rent caps and longer tenancies for private renters and to allow councils to build more social housing, saying the solutions are “obvious”.
She said: “David Cameron talks a lot about families and communities and people getting back into work when all he’s doing is destroying that. We want him to step in and protect us from large corporations coming in and buying up houses, pushing up rent and pushing out real London people.
“It’s criminal and no one is doing anything about it, so we’re here to do something about it. It’s got to stop. We have every right to live in London. Why wouldn’t we, because we don’t earn enough money?”
New York support
Both the Prime Minister and London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson, have been criticised for failing to speak out on behalf of residents or pressure Westbrook to negotiate. The petition means the matter should now be debated in parliament.
Ms Garrett also called on Boris Johnson to follow the New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s lead after he intervened in a dispute between Westbrook and its tenants earlier this year. The NY attorney general forced the company and its co-investors to pay out $1m in compensation to 1,700 tenants, repair its dilapidated buildings and sack its property management company.
The New York Mayor also spoke out in support of New Era residents in a recent interview with Russell Brand saying “sometimes it’s fair to say there’s a limit on how much profit [a residential property speculator] should make because you shouldn’t want to dislocate people from their lives.”
When contacted by the Citizen yesterday, a spokesperson for the London Mayor would only repeat a previous statement saying he had no jurisdiction over the estate and that local MP Meg Hillier and Hackney Council should ‘do all they can’ to help the tenants remain in their homes.
New Era residents handed in a petition to Downing Street signed by over 30,000 people. Photograph: Glenn McMahon
Boris Johnson’s deputy mayor for housing Richard Blakeway, Hackney Council’s mayor Jules Pipe and cabinet member for housing Philip Glanville, have all met Westbrook representatives to discuss the New Era Estate’s future, but with little said publicly afterwards.
However, it has been reported that Westbrook assured tenants on Sunday that their tenancy agreements would be respected until July 2015.
Philip Glanville earlier dismissed reports that Hackney Council would be able to purchase the estate or indeed attempted to do so earlier this year as had been rumoured.
He said: “The Council did not make a bid when it was put up for sale, and we’re also not seeking to purchase the estate now given the Government-imposed borrowing caps on the Housing Revenue Account, and the other pressures and commitments we have made on housing more widely.
However, both he and Mayor Jules Pipe, who joined the demonstration yesterday, said they would be encouraging Westbrook to consider selling the estate to an ethical landlord and expected to meet with the company later this week.
Westbrook Partners were unavailable for comment.
Excellent story. As one of those who both signed and shared the petition I was thrilled to hear that 300,000 had put their names to it.
Essentially this is all about being entitled to cheap rent? Who should pay the going rate, and who gets the preferential rate. The residents at New Era want cheap rent (and who can blame them), and Westbrook want the tenants that pay the most.
SOCIAL HOUSING not SOCIAL CLEANSING
(FOR THE PEOPLE OF NEW ERA HOUSING ESTATE, HOXTON)
The enjoyment of property and the direction of industry are considered,in short, to require no social justification , because they are regarded as rights which stand by their own virtue,not functions to be judged by the success with which they contribute to a social purpose. Today, that doctrine, if intellectually discredited, is still the practical foundation of social organisation ‘
RH Tawney 1921
‘global REACH
local KNOWLEDGE
outstanding RESULTS’ **
1/ GLOBAL REACH
Looking around in 1890, William Booth (who founded the Salvation Army) noted in his book “Darkest England”:
“Talk about Dante’s Hell, and all the horrors and cruelties of the torture-chamber of the lost! The man who walks with open eyes and with bleeding heart through the shambles of our civilisation needs no such fantastic images of the poet to teach him horror. Often and often, when I have seen the young and the poor and the helpless go down before my eyes into the morass, trampled underfoot by beasts of prey in human shape that haunt these regions, it seemed as if God were no longer in His world but that in His stead reigned a fiend, merciless as Hell, ruthless as the grave.”
‘The way in which the vast mass of the poor are treated by modern society is truly scandalous’
Friedrich Engels 1845
sometimes
a blanket
sometimes a battlefield
a sanctuary a sadness
soul retreat
a cave
a machine for living in
a trench
a meaning incomplete
an enemy defeat
close the door
and mend the mind
open the window
see what you can find
bring the outside in
to where you can begin
to untangle
the without
within
where the heart is
where the blood was
a cauldron simmering with lies
a shawl of safety gathering up lonely cries
bandage
for wounds
an idea made brick
where pain is soothed
what makes it different
makes it yours
the bookshelves that wait
the ornaments that remember
the photographs that hang
the place that calls to you when you are lost
the place that warms you when you are cold
the space that shelters from starvation
the place that shields from deprivation
a gravity grab that brings you down to earth
the slate smoothed safeness of somewhere solidarity
where chaos is distilled into mental clarity
the kettle hummed hold of domesticity
the slow walls of wearied winter sleep
the cool cotton of summer sheets
from here we view the world
from here our life unfurls
the path to future roads
begins with the tiny steps taken at home
unfettered, forthright and golden
and when this is taken away,
sold,
culled creations
mind castration
soul assassination
hope cremation
2/ LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
“ I wouldn’t call it a strike- it was more a demonstration for existence.these people were fighting for their lives their communities their future’
Emlyn Williams
1985
parasitic absentee landlords
that do not even own a british passport
spew their mantra of purchase power
as indifferent as contracts, of zero hour
force us to bow to markets not human needs
admonish benefit claimants yet applaud equity greed
from a teacher’s pension fund
in us of a to the eviction a nhs worker in London
international greed knows no bounds
to stake their claim upon foreign ground
then raise the rents to market value
putting whole generations into insecurity, choking on dark shadows
real estate rapists
marauding beneath the radar
pay day pariahs
bloated by another’s hard labour
morals as thin as tissue paper
issuing statements
bathed in denial
proclaiming property portfolios are the new messiahs
as if possession was every human’s only desire
“We take our responsibility as landlord very seriously and are committed to working closely with our tenants throughout this period.” westbrook partners
present rent £800
could triple after christmas
this is the way we do business
a trickle down economy
where quantity rules over quality
and lies crush honesty
‘Westbrook’s professionals are responsible for acquisition, value enhancement, financial accounting and risk management.
Westbrook’s investment equity is committed by a broad, stable base of the highest-quality institutional investors, which includes public and private pension funds, endowments, foundations, and financial institutions.-‘
from Westbrook partners website
‘Among properties Westbrook owns in London is Dolphin Square, a large block of 1930s apartments in Pimlico, central London, which has long been popular with MPs. After it bought the estate, a tenant took Westbrook to court claiming the firm had criminally harassed her to secure an eviction. A high court judge cleared Westbrook, while still finding some of its behaviour “unreasonable and oppressive”.
The company also owned Shell-Mex House, the huge art deco office building next to the riverThames in central London, but sold it last year for a reported profit of more than £100m to a German firm.’
Westbrook invests money from public and private pension funds, endowments, foundations, and financial institutions, mainly in America – and largely in Texas. It includes many lower paid workers including firefighters, teachers and other public sector employees. The Texas Permanent School Fund, the nation’s largest education endowment, has committed $375m to Westbrook over the past six years while the Teacher Retirement System of Texas has invested $150m.
The New York State Teachers Retirement System and the Pennsylvania State Employees Retirement System have invested $50m and $30m respectively. The Ohio Police & Fire have committed $30m.
from guardian website
‘While the future of New Era estate is not yet secure, the fact that a women-led group of working-class residents has been able to take on a powerful MP and win is testimony to the power of collective direct action.
Similarly, with the dust settling on the groundbreaking Focus E15 occupation, in another part of east London, Newham’s mayor, Robin Wales, announced that around 40 households (out of 2,000) on the almost empty Carpenters estate will now be used as temporary accommodation. There is no doubt that this decision was taken after weeks of intense media scrutiny of Newham’s nonsensical housing policy highlighted by the occupation of a perfectly habitable yet empty block of flats.
What is it about groups such as Focus E15 and New Era 4 All that have taken on potent political and business interests and secured (at least partial) victories? Why have they become radicalised and successful, when we’ve got used to so many hard-pressed people describing themselves as isolated and powerless? (I became involved with the Focus E15 campaign after my mum was threatened with eviction due to constant benefit sanctions and the bedroom tax.)
For answers to these questions, I’ve found myself wondering about the place of trade unions, traditionally the medium through which working-class communities have organised themselves. In another era, dockers or factory workers would arrive at the company gates hoping to get a day’s shift, with half being turned away. Such conditions were a breeding ground for radicalisation and agitation. Contrast this with 2014, when more than 1 million workers exist on zero-hours contracts and are told via texts whether they have work or not. The insecurity of the lowest paid is much the same, but the potential for workers to access one another and organise for something better has been undermined by these increasingly individualising practices.’
Sarah Kwei
the peddlars of parasitic pomposity
do nothing
get everything
pay no one
buy everyone
in the name of progression
they sell termination
for when the hands are manacled
the mind tries to free itself
as insanity becomes release
tears for those departed
are acid for the broken hearted
as parades mask the charade
of the emancipation masquerade
we’re in fiscal austerity
while they declare bankruptcy
the jarrow marchers
falter behind satellite suns
the tolpuddlers
seek £6.31 an hour
with a paid lunch break
DO THE MATHS
£6.31 per hour
times 35 (hrs per week)
equals £220.85
minus tax and national insurance
is roughly £180.25
take home pay per week
multiplied by 4 (monthly)
equals £721
which has to cover;
rent ( as does not qualify for a mortgage)
£400
gas and electric £104
council tax £84
water rates £40
totals £628 per month basic outgoings
which leaves
£93 per month
for
food
bus fare
phone
dinner money
clothing
and
actual enjoyment of life
not forgetting
last year’s £200 christmas loan
repayments @ £50 per calendar month
thus
in effect
a daily
negative equity
we are living in a minus reality
walking back through time
to pay for things that we did today
but seem like yesterday
as
tomorrow
holds
a gun to our head
we have no place but this
we have no home but this
we made our choice and it is this
we live
and
in living, we exist
we
send our children to their schools,
carve our sacred paths
play by the rules
know the bus timetable
hear the trains clatter by
memorise my square of sky
walk our dogs
dig our plots
decorate our homes
create crime free zones
trace the movements of my loved ones
like the pattern of branches
3/ OUTSTANDING RESULTS
“Everyone is our society has had to make a contribution to dealing with the debt’
George Osborne 2012
Our estate, The New Era Estate in Hoxton,
has a long history of providing affordable housing
and has been home to some people for 70 years.
It is home to families who have built their lives in this area –
like mine.
I’m a mother of young children and work for the NHS.
My parents live on this estate too.
There are so many families like mine who have this area in their blood.
But the property firm Westbrook Partners
have recently bought the estate
and are planning a massive rent hike that will treble what we pay now.
We’re calling on the firm to
ensure long term affordable rent
so that our families aren’t forced to be made homeless.
Property prices in the capital have risen by 25%
and now stand at an average of £400,000,
above their pre-crash 2007 peak,
whilst wages have drastically failed to keep pace.
Hackney in general, but the areas surrounding Hoxton in particular,
has been at the sharp end of this dramatic change,
and the area has witnessed rapid social and economic change over the last decade,
displacing long standing communities
and destroying homes for workers providing key services to London and the local area.
The cost of the forces of change
have been paid by individuals and families,
who are being forced from the area they were born and grew up in.
The approach of profit over people is devastating lives
and shredding long standing communities,
to such an extent that the Mayor of Hackney, Jules Pipe,
has said that the treatment of the tenants is unfair
and that the proposed rent increases are
‘tearing the heart out of Hoxton’.
Lindsay Garrett and Barry Watt (change.org)
The Pheasant Shoot
wings clipped
feathers strewn
once beautiful birds
shudder in wintering cold
drop from the sky
to stagger upon this unnatural soil
they smash each other over the crumbs
eat those with injuries first
then stalk the weaker
as the food fades
starvation takes hold
they wander in the delirium of malnutrition
the shooters scoff
fill their bloated faces with cake
from behind false bushes
fences for the righteous
insignia of the princes
take photographs on their phones
share this misery as their glory
bide their time
for the final shot
mostly unneeded
as the birds
themselves
beat each other into submission
then
dododumb;
and vulturevisioned
take on each other
one by one
onebyone
crumple like leaves
into a life pyre
choice amputated
lie down lie down
at the hands of their covert oppressors
as
night
places a noose
upon their withered necks
the shooters
put down their weapons
applaud the efficiency
of their armoury
then,
silently,
walk away
to the next field,
demonise or die
(FOR STEPHANIE BOTTRILL)
AS THEY SIT IN THEIR SPLENDOUR
PLANNING NEW MODES OF ATTACK
THEY DISCOVERED THE SPARE ROOM SUPPLEMENT
BETTER KNOWN AS THE BEDROOM TAX
A CUNNING CONCOCTION OF LAISSEZ-FAIRE AND BIG BROTHER
A METICULOUS MALEDICTA
THAT SETS ONE AGAINST ANOTHER
AND EACH TO JUDGE THE OTHER
AS STARBUCKS AND AMAZON FIND NEW WAYS TO FALL BENEATH THE RADAR
THE MOST VULNERABLE, THE SICK, THE POOR
ARE TARGETED BY IDS, THE MORAL CRUSADER
ALSO KNOWN AS THE SOCIETAL RAPER
BEDROOMS COUNTED
BENEFITS SLASHED INTO THE NEGATIVE
ECONOMIC POLICY PARADES AS MORAL IMPERATIVE
BLAME SPEWS FROM A CAPITALIST FUNDAMENTALIST
THAT EMBODIES THE HIJAB AND THE CRUCIFIXION
IN ONE SWOOP OF HIS RHETORIC,
THE EUPHORIC PRONOUNCEMENTS WHOSE AGENDA IS DESECRATION
THAT ABHORS WASTE
AND VALUES AUSTERITY
ADMONISHES FOOD BANKS FOR CHARITY
YET
ELEVATES MAN TO MAN INHUMANITY
UNDER THE GUISE OF FREE MARKET ECONOMY
WHEN NOTHING GOES IN
NOTHING COMES OUT
SURVIVAL THE STAPLE
EXISTING, THOSE LABELLED
AS THOUGHT PROCESSES STARVED WITH DOUBT
CHOICE BECOMES
BLANKETS INSTEAD OF HEAT
FOODBANKS PLACED IN SCHOOLS
PLACE THE NON PAYERS ON THE DUCKING STOOL
UNTIL COMMUNITY
UNTIL CARE
UNTIL UNITY
BECOME OBSOLETE
‘ you have nothing to fear
it is a proud duty to provide
financial security
to the most vulnerable members of society
and this will not change’ Ian Duncan smith 2010
THAT WAS THEN
THIS IS NOW
AS TODAY I READ OF THOSE
THREATENED WITH LETTERS
SENT BY THEIR BETTERS
ATOS INTERVIEWERS
BENEFIT REVIEWS
THEN
SUICIDE NOTES
FROM FREEZING COLD FLATS
PUSHED TO THE EDGE
BY DUNCAN SMITH’S PLEDGE
TO REDUCE THE STATS
AS HE / THEY SIT IN THEIR SHINEY SAFE SPLENDOUR
PLANNING THE NEXT ATTACK
TAKING PRIDE IN THEIR NEW MORTUARY SLABS
UPON WHICH LAY
THE VICTIMS OF THEIR SUBTLE FINAL SOLUTION
THE BEDROOM TAX
the human tax the housing tax the post code tax the
the living tax,
so where are those who now own my home, to which i am devoted
who can cast me out with 2 weeks notice?
to some place else?
they make me feel so hopeless
where are they?
what is their home like?
concrete bunkers
like the third reich?
does it smell of them
does it have books collected from all over the world
in which knowledge is walled
does it paint a world of love and children
protection against the inhumanity bewildering
does it speak of sadness
of salvation
of love
of loss?
has it witnessed some of the greatest moments ever experienced upon this planet
THIS IS MY HOME
THIS IS WHERE I LIVE.
no more no less
where i bathed my sons
where i fed them at night
oh how they clung to me so tight
where my mother died
where they learnt to walk
for all their needs i provided
where i wallpapered their rooms
and they added posters to feel content
do you know how that felt?
it is where i can return after a long day
and close the door
and relax
so these are the facts
of my existence
is it this what you aim to attack?
i thought i was safe
now i look over my shoulder
at the invisible
yet indelible stalker
who knows everything but nothing about me
i don’t know what they look like
Westbrook, partners, alledgedly
but i have heard the name Mark Donnor
chartered surveyor
maybe a puppet
maybe putrefaction purveyor
does he know my name?
or are we,
tenants of New Era housing Estate,
all the same,
numbers crunched at bargain rates
decimals to desecrate
pension funds to renumerate?
once we were known as people
now profits define our place
in the scheme of things
our home silently cowardly defaced
by pawns masquerading as kings
we once spoke of football matches,
christmas puddings
neighbourly consensus
and poker nights
now
operating deficit, senior debt and mezzanine blank our minds
to say nothing of hard costs, soft costs or acquisition rights
you must have been here once to appraise our beloved place
called on bridging loans to buy down by passed by laws
and building restrictions
to get what you wanted
to get what you want ed
is there such thing as a constructive eviction?
surely this has to be within the law’s jurisdiction?
For every flat you buy
you remove the family’s little piece of sky
for every penny you save
there’s a grandfather sent to the grave
let the market decide
let the dollar divide
equality before the law – denied
listen listen to money talking
see see the people crawling
like a missile misfired
you purchase lives
then run and hide
an abrogated responsibility
in the land of opportunity
to a laissez faire paradise
where man meets man
through sacrifice
where no one asks and no one gives
a world made catatonic
where emotions remain embryonic
and no one uses the word forgive
as
now.
here.
our
streets.
sombre. deserted.
our homes.
anxious. shaking. inverted
debt haunted
i guess you think got what you wanted,
but
The purpose of industry is obvious. It is to supply man with things which are necessary, useful or beautiful, and thus to bring life to body or spirit. In so far as it is governed by this end, it is among the most important of human activities. In so far as it is diverted from it, it may be harmless, amusing, or even exhilarating to those who carry it on, but it possesses no more social significance than the orderly business of ants and bees, the strutting of peacocks, or the struggles of carnivorous animals over carrion.
R H TAWNEY
and so
we will not be your scapegoats
for your policy, cutthroat
our lives shall be exalted
our community devoted
our voices united
our passion ignited
our homes reunited
why not invest in bricks and mortarism
not support unregulated private landlordism
there shall be aspirations of poverty
there shall be a working towards equality
not instant celebrity
or housing ladder lottery
to own others
is to be enslaved by chains ourselves
to live well without guilt, with generosity
not to treat human life as mere commodity
shall give meaning and everlasting wealth
as a home
is so much more
than a market rated property
and that, dear partners, westbrook of us and a
is decent common sense
‘global REACH
local KNOWLEDGE
outstanding RESULTS’ **
– found on home page of Westbrook Partners website 2014
by patrick jones