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21 August 2015
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Profiteering housing firm ignores angry residents
Toby Hardy, Tower Hamlets Socialist Party
Residents on four former council estates on the Isle of Dogs, east London, face losing their homes to redevelopment. It has now emerged that profiteering housing firm One Housing Group (OHG) is not even considering other options.
Locals have formed the 'Save Our Island Homes' campaign to stop OHG breaking up their community. Members of Tower Hamlets Socialist Party actively support residents. Intensive local campaigning forced OHG to reveal details of its hated 'Project Stone'.
A 52-page document made clear the firm is fixed in its plans to demolish and redevelop the estates. It aims to apply for planning permission by December.
Residents at a lively, 70-strong meeting on 13 August, organised by Save Our Island Homes, felt let down by lack of transparency from the council and OHG. Questions were raised about the original transfer of stock from Tower Hamlets council to Toynbee Housing Association.
One resident commented: "We were offered an island-based housing association. We need to get away from One Housing Group."
Residents at the Save Our Island Homes meeting, photo by Socialist Party (Click to enlarge)
OHG and property developers Argent have already shown the document to John Biggs, mayor of the borough of Tower Hamlets. The council has supposedly threatened to end its relationship with OHG as preferred housing provider. This is welcome, but not enough.
The plans are to replace 2,000 existing homes with 9,000 new ones over the next 15 to 20 years. A mere 30% of stock will be so-called 'affordable' housing, with rents too high for many social tenants.
As part of this, 17% will be 'shared ownership' between housing association and resident. According to a council source, this could mean leaseholders will have to buy back their current homes. They may be offered a 25% discount to buy homes they already own - very generous.
But the disparity between values could still be anything up to £150,000. This will make returning after redevelopment impossible for many residents.
And many social tenants will lose homes altogether in the redeveloped site, as only the remaining 13% of housing will be available to them.
The bulk - 70% - will be offered to a target market of investors and high-earning finance workers.
The result is stress and uncertainty for tenants and leaseholders alike. One elderly resident said: "I have asthma and I need a ground floor flat. What guarantees are there that I'll get one? I want to stay on the island, I don't want to move to Essex."
We spoke to a leaseholder who said: "I have paid 15 years of my mortgage. I'm going to be losing out if I have to move to Birmingham. My roots are here and I want to stay. What about my children's school? We are settled here."
The campaign against social cleansing on the island is growing in strength and numbers. 24 residents volunteered to help and were elected as the campaign committee.
The demands remain the same. For OHG to be sacked from managing the estates. To stop the redevelopment. And for the council to take control and social responsibility as agreed by residents on the four estates.
There will be a meeting with Mayor Biggs on 27 August. We will put these demands forward, and make clear that he and the council must protect residents from the profiteering of OHG.
The 13 August meeting also agreed to organise a protest outside the full council meeting on 16 September. Councillors will be discussing whether or not to carry through their threat to ditch OHG.
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