CWU activist exposes housing policy injustice in BBC documentary
March 9 2016The work of Greater London Combined branch activist Jasmin Parsons and the local campaign group, Our West London, to save council homes in West Hendon from the wrecking ball of Barnet Council housing policy features in a BBC expose “The Estate We’re In” to be screened at 22.45pm next Tuesday (March 15).
The programme looks at the demolition of the North London council estate, as part of a multi-million pound regeneration. Promised new homes, many residents now wonder whether they will get a place to live on the new development, having seen others evicted from their homes never to return.
Situated beside the beautiful Welsh Harp Reservoir, the West Hendon Estate was built in the 1960’s to provide social housing for families on low incomes.
Today, Tory-run Barnet Council has deemed that the estate’s ‘grotty’ buildings are beyond repair, and, in partnership with private developers, the estate is being demolished to make way for a regeneration, which includes building four skyscrapers on York Memorial Park.
The programme charts some of the pain and distress caused for residents, like tenant Katrina, who has lived on the estate all her life, told that she and her daughter are being evicted from their flat and moved away from the support of her mother still on the estate.
Then there is pensioner Joe, who will have to sell the maisonette that he has lived in for 30 years and saved up to purchase under right to buy.
If the council does not increase its offer, he will have to leave London and the three generations of his family who live locally, to afford a home elsewhere in the north of the country.
Jasmin Parsons declared that “never in the history of social housing has so much been taken from so many by so few.”
Jasmin has led the fight against Barnet Council, seeking to make the council deliver on its promise to provide new homes for all the residents.
There were originally 680 homes, made up of one bedroom flats, two bed maisonettes and four bed houses, but Barratts wanted to put 2,000 private properties in their place.
Originally there were to be 550 social homes on the development but this number has now been whittled down to approximately 219, with the potential to reduce further.
“A public inquiry recognised that residents rights were being violated but stated that in the interests of the public good (who or where we were never told) our rights could be ignored and our homes taken from us,” said Jasmin, who represented residents at the inquiry. “The outcome was that they were able to sell York Memorial Park for just £3 – worth at that time between £12 and £15 million – to allow the building of luxury units ranging from £420,000 to £622,000, replacing the council homes with a high rise ghetto which anyone can buy with a £3,000 monthly mortgage.
“Barratts recently paid out £1.3 billion to their shareholders. By way of contrast, Barnet Council has tripled its pay out to private landlords now housing many of the tenants who used to rent council homes.”
The programme offers not only an insight into the injustice of what has happened to the residents in West Hendon but also a glimpse of what is happening more widely with housing policy being sacrificed on the altar of private profit.
The campaign work done in West Hendon very much chimes with the CWU housing campaign which seeks to promote public housing for people at point of need. Among the demands of the campaign is the provision of more affordable housing, reduced rents and maintaining council housing stock by limiting right to buy.
For more details see: http://www.cwu.orghttp://www.cwu.org/media/campaigns/housing-for-all/ #H4A
Follow the campaign: @OurWestHendon
Please sign the petition to Boris Johnson: https://www.change.org/p/boris-johnson-put-our-homes-before-profit/u/15756536
Watch some short clips here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t0ydd