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HAGGERSTON WEST & KINGSLAND: LEFT TO ROT FOR 10 YEARS
In the mid 90's Hackney Council targeted various estates in the borough for sell-off. They asked tenants to vote on whether their homes would be transferred to Housing Association ownership.
On the Haggerston, Whitmore and Kingsland estates a lot of the residents opposed the plan. To get tenants on board, Housing Associations started guaranteeing low rent rises and promising new homes rather than refurbishment. This meant their costs went up and Housing Associations couldn’t afford to take on all the estates so the council decided to split them up. That meant that ‘Haggerston East’ (blocks to the East of Haggerston Road) and Whitmore Estate were balloted first. This move also isolated many of the tenants on Haggerston West who were against the sale – a classic ‘divide and rule’ tactic.
 
A short history Kingsland and Haggerston West

Despite this division and spending £2000 a flat on their pro-privatisation campaign, the vote in 1998 on Haggerston East and Whitmore was a very close call. The estate was sold to “Canalside Housing Partnership" (a joint operation of Metropolitan Housing Trust and Community Housing Association). At the time Haggerston Labour Councillor David Young promised the residents of Haggerston West and Kingsland that they wouldn’t be forgotten.
 
Endless negotiations
Giving up on the Council refurbishing them, tenants leaders on Haggerston West and Kingsland have worked with the Council for the last SEVEN years to get the best deal they can from a Housing Association. It took a campaign from residents from 1997 – 2000 to get the council to agree that they would get a vote rather than just have the estate handed to a Housing Association to knock down and rebuild. Haggerston West tenants had seen some of the nasty surprises Canalside had sprung on their neighbours. These included lowering building standards to save money and reducing the number of affordable homes by turning more of the estate over to expensive ‘Key Worker’ schemes. To stop this happening to them the tenants presented four
Housing Associations with a series of demands. All four said no, so the process started again. Residents began to work with a new Housing Association, London & Quadrant. In 2004 they got very close to having a package that could be put to the vote but this time the builders pulled out and the arrangement collapsed.
Every time a new set of proposals was made it included fewer and fewer normal tenancies and more and more private flats. In an attempt to make a ‘financially viable’ deal plans for tower blocks, ownership schemes and shared-ownership have all been discussed.
Of course, the more tenants you can move off the estate the fewer you have to rehouse on the new development. The latest plans will have about 100 less flats at normal rents than there are now.
Haggerston West and Kingsland residents are finally set to vote on the plans early next year. But hold on, haven’t our Labour councillors told us that we are going to be run by their ALMO from April? And they say the ALMO will bring millions of pounds of extra money in to repair our estates. Under questioning Labour Mayor Jules Pipe was forced to admit that if Haggerston West and Kingsland tenants vote NO to the sale of their estates, then their homes would be refurbished to the decent homes standard with the council still as the landlord, but managed by the ALMO.

It is disgusting that after more than 10 years of planning, Haggerston West and Kingsland residents are living in shocking conditions and still being charged full rent.
After all these negotiations many people on the estate don’t even understand what is happening any more. A Hackney Independent survey about the situation found that most tenants on the two estates are confused about what is going on.
New Labour would never treat its middle class voters so badly. Can you imagine a private street of Victorian houses by London Fields being left to rot for this long? It is because it is a working class estate that the council thinks it can get away with it. We have seen the council supporting the building of private flats all along Kingsland Road over the last few years. No problems with money or getting builders there. But Hackney Council won’t put the money they get from our rents and service charges, plus government grant, into building new council housing and refurbishing all council housing in Haggerston. Whether or not you agree with the latest plans to sell Haggerston West & Kingsland estates, everyone in Haggerston can see that residents of these estates have had a raw deal from Hackney Council.
What has happened to these estates shows what happens when the Council picks on your estate to be sold. More than 10 years of talk, the estate left to rot and less council homes for rent. It could be your estate next.
Have you ever wondered why two Haggerston estates have been run down for over ten years? We are giving over most of this issue to look at these two estates - Haggerston West, off Haggerston Road, and Kingsland Estate, off Whiston Road between Haggerston Pool and the railway line. In this issue we try to give a history of what has happened, talk to residents on both sides about the proposal to sell the estate to a Housing Association and have a look at what it is like to live on an estate the council is privatising.

Hackney Independent spoke to one tenant from Kingsland Estate about what it is like to live with insecurity and terrible conditions while the Council plans how it can sell the estate. Despite the ill health of her and her son – caused by the poor conditions in the flat – the council has rejected her applications for transfer.

“I have lived here for 21 years with my son, who is almost 21 himself. My flat in Hebden Court has been damp, with water running from the roof through the wall and into the flat. My son has suffered from chronic head colds and needs an operation on his ears because of the damp. I suffer from arthritis and osteoporosis as a result of living for years in sub-standard accommodation.
The whole flat is infested with mould, even in the wardrobes and drawers. We’ve had to replace clothes and furniture many times over.
The hope of renovation kept us going, but it has not happened and the council has refused to move us. My son was 3 months old when I first applied for a transfer, and I have made dozens of applications since, but nothing has ever been done. I feel I have been abused by the stress of living here, in these conditions, with all the promises we have heard from the council over the last 16 years about estate redevelopment.
We have a secure tenancy agreement, but this tenancy has never felt secure. I have never been able to feel completely at home in this flat because of the demolition plans.
After 16 years of false promises from the council, and still no news, I am disgusted with them. I feel abused. We still don’t know what the future is. Why are we still in this sub standard accommodation after all this time?”
 

Do you have a story about how you have been affected by Hackney Council? We will print your story in the Hackney Independent or on our website. Please contact Carl Taylor on 020 7684 1743.

Haggerston & Kingsland Sale: For and Against
After years of propaganda in favour of selling Haggerston West & Kingsland estates, most residents have been left confused about what is going on. Many have given up hope on Hackney Council ever being a decent landlord. But is there a case against the sale of the estates to London & Quadrant Housing Association? Having spoken to a number of residents who oppose the sale, Hackney Independent presents some of the arguments against:
 
The Housing Association’s plans mean about 100 less homes for rent. That means even less chance for overcrowded Hackney tenants and their sons and daughters to get somewhere decent to live.
•Having 100 less homes for rent also means that the council has to pay an EXTRA £1,000,000 a year to keep homeless families in hostels. The Council also loses the £500,000 a year that they would have got from rents and council tax. So losing 100 flats will cost the council £1.5 million a year. This is a price the Council are prepared to pay to get rid of council housing.
•There are now so many empty flats on the two estates that almost every family could be moved to a ground floor flat with a garden.
•Why have the Council promised residents on every other estate in the Borough that their ALMO will bring in the funds to do up their homes? Why do Haggerston West and Kingsland have to go over to a Housing Association instead?
•When the Tollington estates in Finsbury Park voted against transfering to a Housing Association last year, Islington Council “found” £25 million to refurbish the estates still under the Council. The same could happen to Haggerston West & Kingsland.
•If you vote YES you only get one vote. You never get the chance to vote to go back to the council if the Housing Association lets you down. But if you vote NO the Housing Association could come back with a better offer. If you are not completely sure you are better off voting NO.
•As a council tenant you have a secure tenancy backed up by the law. Whatever their promises, all a Housing Association can offer you is a contract supposedly offering the same rights as a council tenant. This contract is not backed up by law. If the contract is broken you have to go to court and take on the Housing Association’s lawyers.
•Whatever the Council’s faults and however hard it is to get them to listen, every four years we do get a vote as to who is on the Council. You never get a say in who runs the Housing Association’s Board.
We have printed the views of tenants who support plans to sell their estate (see article below). The Council has never agreed to print the views of tenants who oppose their privatisation plans. Why don’t they want tenants to hear both sides of the argument?
 
Hackney Independent spoke to Pat Phillips and Pam Davey – tenant leaders for Haggerston West who support the sale of their estate. Pat and Pam are both on the Tenants and Residents Association, the Estate Committee and the Estate
Development Management Committee (EDMC) – which is involved with the regeneration of the estate. They are also involved with the Fruit and Veg Co-op at the community centre every Thursday.
 
Hackney Independent: How long have you been tenants on this estate?
 
Pat & Pam:We both moved here in 1999. It was then a hard-to let estate and we were only supposed to be here temporarily!
 
HI: Why are you supporting stock transfer of Haggerston West and Kingsland Estates to London and Quadrant Housing Association?
 
Just look around you … Living conditions are dreadful, extremely poor. The council has left the estate in disrepair for years. Just now we have broken drains, there are rats and cockroaches. Six years ago we were told that demolition and rebuild would be a matter of months, and we’re still waiting. The bathrooms and kitchens in the flats are very small.
Refurbishment would not solve those problems without losing a bedroom. Without demolition and rebuild the flats will be too small for families.
 
HI: Do you think the council is giving you any other choice?
 
London and Quadrant have got to be a better and more responsive landlord than the council. We’ve interviewed them, of course, and we’ve been to see some of their other developments.
 
HI: There are now 1,500,000 people on council waiting lists in this country. This has gone up from 1,000,000 since Labour was elected to government in 1997. One of the problems about the transfer to London & Quadrant is that there will be less rented
housing for the council to house people.
 
We’ve negotiated with London & Quadrant to get what tenants want. Everybody here now who wants to return will be able to. We’ve developed our own tenants’ charter. For example we have insisted that Key Workers will pay the same rents as every other tenant.
That’s only fair. It won’t be like Canalside over the road.
 
HI: How do you feel about the refurbishment that has taken place on St Mary’s and Fellows Court estates while your homes have been left to decay?
 
Well, we’re not too worried about refurbishment on other estates. They’ve been on the list for maintenance works and we haven’t. The wait has been a long one, but this estate will be fantastic when the work is finished.
 
Independent Kids Cinema

The Incredibles: Two Showings

HAGGERSTON
10.30am
Goldsmiths Community Centre
Goldsmiths Row E2
 
HOXTON
3pm
Geffrye Estate Community Centre
Falkirk St N1
 
Wednesday December 21
Film + Drink + Crisps 50p
 
Broadway Market Occupation
Everyone in the area knew Tony Platia, who had run Franscesca’s Cafe from these premises for 30 years. Tony was evicted on 1st July 2005 and had his livelihood destroyed. Tony was part of the local community and on previous occasions local people rallied round to help prevent his eviction by bailiffs but in July, 10 bailiffs and 50 police turned up to throw him out. Tony was evicted by Dr Roger Wratten, a property developer who also owns a number of premises in Broadway Market and many other local sites. He owns the cleared warehouses on the corner of Queensbridge & Whiston Roads, where he plans to build 132 mainly private flats.
Dr Wratten got Tony’s Café when Hackney Council sold off many of its commercial properties to try and solve its debt problem. Despite the fact that Tony had first refusal on the property and kept trying to buy it from Hackney Council, he was passed over in favour of a wealthy developer. The way the cafe was sold to Wratten is very suspicious and is now under investigation. Hackney’s sell-off of commercial properties was a disgrace. The Council’s estate agents sold £225 million worth of properties for just £70 million (losing £150 million of our money) and most were sold to off-shore developers who made a killing at the expense of Hackney people.
Dr Wratten wants to knock down the whole building and build a new shop downstairs with luxury flats upstairs. The builders turned up to demolish Tony’s Cafe on Monday 28th of November. But this demolition was stopped by a number of local people who are against the Yuppie flats that would replace it and are angry with the council-sponsored gentrification of the area. At the time of writing they have occupied the building (an entirely legal action) to make a stand against the developers and to appeal for a full investigation into claims of corruption around how the Council sold its commercial properties.
 
Support
The occupation has huge support in the local community, where many people have known Tony for years. Many locals have commented on how angry they are that after 30 years Tony was forced out of Broadway Market and that Tony represents a part of Broadway Market that is being pushed out as the area becomes trendy and expensive.
Hackney Independent have given their full support to the action. Although the Hackney
Gazette made the protesters out to be “squatters” most of those involved have never done this kind of thing before - they have just had enough of the changes in Broadway
Market which only benefit the new middle class settlers. Direct action was the only way to prevent the demolition and give Tony some kind of chance to return. This occupation needs active support from everyone to succeed.
 
What you can do to support the occupation:
1. Take some leaflets from the cafe and give them to your friends and neighbours
2. Spend some time in the cafe. We need people there 24 hours a day
3. Give some money or food to help keep the occupation going
We can save our cafe and stop Broadway market becoming a middle-class only area of boutiques, estate agents and luxury flats.
 
Tony is not alone
Francesca’s Cafe is not the only small business to have been pushed out of Broadway market. Other longstanding shopkeepers like Paul the TV repair man and Prakash (Peter) from Kenny’s Newsagents have also had to leave. Now Lowell Grant AKA ‘Spirit’ from the Nutritious Food Galley has been served with an order for possession of his premises.
Spirit is another victim of the dodgy sell-off of former Hackney Council property to developers. He moved into the Market in 1993, got a cheap lease and spent 6 years doing up the derelict council-owned shop. In 2001 the Council put the property up for auction. Spirit went to Council estate agents Nelson Bakewell and gave them a cheque for the deposit on his property. Later that day they sold it at auction to a developer for £15K less than Spirit had already paid! The developers started making him pay TEN TIMES more rent and are now trying to get him out. After all his hard work Spirit is having his livelihood taken away and we are losing another useful shop. Now the same thing is happening in Dalston Lane, possibly on a much bigger scale...
 
“What has happened is shameful and disgraceful. People have been robbed. These people don’t really care about the residents of Hackney but it’s the residents that make the area what it is” - A Statement from Spirit
 
Hackney Independent Needs You!
Hackney Independent is a local community-based political organisation. Throughout the year, we deliver thousands of copies of this free newsletter to homes across the Haggerston and Hoxton area; giving you the news you won't hear from Hackney Today or any other official local publication. We have also stood candidates in the local elections, regularly take part in community campaigns, and organise practical stuff like advice sessions and support the Hackney Independent Kids' Cinema. Unlike the council or property developers, we won't tell you how good things are while our homes and schools are sold off, and valuable local facilities are closed down.
We want to carry on defending homes and facilities for ordinary people in Hackney – but we can’t do it without your involvement. You can assist in a number of ways, such as by helping deliver or producing our newsletter, getting involved in our other activities or just by keeping us informed of what is happening in your part of the area or estate.
Or maybe you have your own ideas or suggestions for helping out.
If you would like to know more, get in touch with Carl Taylor on 020 7684 1743, write to us at Hackney Independent, PO Box 47000, London E8 4WW, or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .