Russel Brand is actively supporting the campaign to defend New Era estate tenants, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)
Brian Debus, Hackney Socialist Party
Tenants on the New Era estate in Hackney are faced by an unholy alliance of predatory property speculation. It comes in the form of US-based Westbrook Partners and feudalistic landlord Richard Benyon MP.
Speaking to the Socialist, New Era tenant Mrs Hammond said “we have spent thousands on the flats modernising them up and now they are slinging us out.”
Benyon, the richest Tory MP, lives on an ‘estate’ with a castle, a deer park and 20,000 acres of land. His interest is clearly in yet more profit for his vast estate and to hell with the tenants.
Westbrook also has form. The firm bought 1,600 properties in New York with the intention of driving up rents and making massive profits out of the misery of its tenants.
They were unsuccessful. They failed to maintain mortgage payments which led to foreclosure. During this period next to no maintenance was done.
“These guys took $133 million from the bank and not one dime has gone into taking care of the buildings we live in,” said Debra Cooper, a tenants’ union leader. “We live with constant leaks. I regularly don’t have heat or hot water. We have no mail boxes and can’t get our mail. Enough is enough.” (From campaign website thesurrealestate.org.)
A massive campaign by the New York tenants has won rent rebates of $600 each – totalling $1million – and an increase in property maintenance.
Socialist Party activists on the New Era estate, September 2014, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)
