London: 8,000 council homes set for demolition
By
Alice Summers
18 September 2018
Over 100 council housing estates across London are to be demolished in the latest bipartisan attack on social housing in the UK’s capital.
The continuing social cleansing of the city, euphemistically labelled “redevelopment,” will see over 31,000 social housing residents forced to leave their homes, with 118 housing sites set to be demolished or “regenerated” over the coming years.
This could lead to the loss of as many as 8,000 homes.
The figures, obtained through a BBC Freedom of Information request, show that of the 118 estates to be regenerated, over 80 of them will be fully or partially demolished.
On the Ebury Bridge estate in the London Borough of Westminster, for example, the local council plans to pull down 300 social homes, to be replaced by 750 new properties. Most of these properties will be sold at prices far exceeding the budgets of most social housing tenants. Only around 340 of the new homes will be classed as “affordable,” of which 287 will be council properties. However, given that “affordable” housing is defined as a property costing up to 80 percent of the average local market rent—which in Westminster stands at a staggering £2,247 a month—claims that these properties are a viable option for Westminster’s evicted working-class residents are bogus.
The London borough set to see the biggest loss of homes in the coming years is Southwark in South London, whose Labour-run council has given planning permission for hundreds of “regeneration” schemes. This will see the loss of 2,196 socially rented homes, according to data collated by Green party co-leader Sian Berry.
These are only the most recent developments, following decades of social…