HARINGEY HOUSING NEWS Saved From Haringey Defend Council Housing - Spring 2019 Demolition These eight Haringey es- Love Lane: Don’t knock it Down! tates have been SAVED from demolition: The Temporary Accommodation Group (TAG) is fighting for the rights of temporary tenants (temps) at the Love Lane estate, Summersby Road, Tamar which the Council wants to demolish for redevelopment by Way, Larkspur Close, Hel- . The temps ston Court, Turner Avenue, should be given and ALL the demolition permanent tenancies. sites in Wood Green: Cax- ton Road, and Sky City and According to our sources, of- Page High (the high level ficers are threatening to move estates). 812 homes have all temps off the estate if peo- been saved so far. ple dare to vote No to the But 4,605 homes on 10 demolition plans. We say, let’s estates are still at risk stand up against these threats ofdemolition: and dirty tricks. Love Lane, Northumberland Park, The GLA has refused any , Park more funding for the develop- Grove, Lemsford and Leabank, Reynardson ment, and now the Council is Court, Tredegar Road, looking for a Plan B. Some Sky City Residents Have Defeated Demolition Tunnel Gardens, 102- Councillors do not want to 116 Woodside Ave, knock the whole estate down. and Imperial Wharf. Lendlease was the borough’s part- Secure tenants and leasehold- ner for the proposed HDV company Service Charge Scams! ers would lose out if the estate last year, which Councillors aban- is demolished. Both groups doned after long and stormy pro- Both tenants and leasehold- would be rehoused on the other tests. We say, Love Lane should ers are affected by service side of the railway tracks. be improved and not demolished. charge scams. This year’s Leaseholders have not been The residents will be able to de- biggest increases are for offered a new equivalent home, cide. Although it is postponed, a outsourced services: as they should have been. It yes/No Ballot is still planned. Street sweeping (waste was not the residents’ idea to Vote NO to demolition and NO to collection)-up 15% move house! Lendlease! TV Aerial maintenance- Tenants could pay much higher up 72% rents, and 7 new service charg- Residents’ Success Over Water Charges Door entry systems-up es as well, for CCTV, concierge, lift maintenance, cleaning, re- Residents are to pay less after suc- 41% cessfully challenging Councils for tak- pairs, lighting, green space and The Council REFUSED us planting. ing a hefty commission while collect- ing water charges from us, over many consultation, but we lobbied Lendlease is the international years. The water charges have been against these increases an- taken out of our rent accounts from property developer active at the 1st April. yway. demolished Heygate Estate in Car parking charges for es- South , where only 45 Thames Water offers a Water Sure Plus scheme with 50% discounts for tate residents could be next. households had returned by residents on lower incomes. The Help us to fight against 2013. Council never offered anything like these charges. this. If you are eligible, don't miss out on the discount. Don’t Push Us Out of the Community! The plan to force poorer people out of Haringey by knocking down council estates began after the riots of 2011. A policy like this is called ‘social cleansing’. The Tory government said they believed the riots were caused by the fact people lived on council estates - despite zero evidence. Haringey Council were happy to agree with the government and the policy soon spread from Tottenham across the borough and then throughout London and England. Haringey tenants have fought a long, hard battle against the prej- udiced policy of demolitions. Despite some important victories, the war has not been won yet. There are battles that we still must win. The Council must stop all estate demolitions. Of the 4,605 homes at risk of demolition in Haringey 2,500 are council tenanted properties. This type of massive reduction in council homes cannot be justified when 3,000 Haringey households are living in temporary accommoda- tion. The Council must stop its policy of requiring less social rented properties in new developments in Totten- ham than in the rest of the borough. This is a blatant attempt to reduce the proportion of working class people in Tottenham’s population. It is also a scandal that Love Lane tenants who have moved off the estate will not get right to return if it is demolished. Building huge amounts of unaffordable housing drives up local house prices and private rents. Private landlords will serve notice on their existing tenants, to make more money from new ones. The problems of Tottenham and the rest of Haringey must be solved by addressing poverty, racism and lack of decent job and career opportunities. Trying to solve problems by forcing us out is discrimination.

Beware of ‘Mayor’s Rent’

On demolition estates, the Mayor of London wants to replace homes at council rent with new homes at ‘Mayor’s rent’ (£50 per week higher), or with new housing association ‘social rent’ homes that mysteri- ously have similar, much higher rents with higher service charges on top. We have been up to City Hall arguing with planners and officers about this shocking news. They want to price us out of the City. It is good that Haringey Council says it is committed to Council homes at Council rent. But the Mayor’s plan is coming to estates all around London, and Harin- gey Council should speak out against it. There is no doubt that estate demolition means forced gentrification and social cleansing. A study by the Centre for London says that redevelopment means such drastic changes to people’s lives, with a loss of connection in new communities of affluent incomers, that worse health would result for 10-25% of residents, and earlier death for 1-3% of residents. The developers’ response is to talk about compen- sation – but what is the price of a tenant or leaseholder’s life? As little as £100,000 for earlier death ap- parently. We say, it’s time to stop the demolitions. Time to invest in homes and communities, we need more and better council housing!

Haringey Defend Council Housing Meetings

We meet at 6.30pm on the second Thursday of each month, at St John Vianney RC Church Hall, 386 West Green Road N15 3QL (Room 3 – upstairs): Access is from Vincent Road. Nearest tube: Turnpike Lane. Buses: 41, 67 and 230. All are welcome. Next 2 meetings will be on 9 May and 13 June.

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Haringey Defend Council Housing is supported by Haringey UNISON and Haringey Federation of Residents Associations