Marcon Court Campaign Forum

Hackney IWCA has opposed transfers of Council housing to private landlords or housing associations on the grounds that – among other things – at least with the Council you know if you don’t like what they’re doing with your housing you can vote to get rid of them. Evidence from all over the country also suggests that rents go up when housing is transferred to profit making landlords and services like estate cleaning and caretaking are the first to be cut to satisfy the demands of business to make money. Marcon Court appears to be another estate the Council are looking to get rid of. Janine Booth, Chair of the TRA explains below and invites people to support the tenants and residents on the estate.

Marcon Court is a Council estate of 81 flats in central Hackney. It has not been refurbished for two decades and is in a poor state of repair.

Hackney Council – after several broken promises to refurbish the estate – is now putting us through a ‘pilot’ process, which will determine whether to refurbish the estate or to transfer it to a new landlord to be demolished and rebuilt.

Our Tenants’ & Residents’ Association wants refurbishment not privatisation. Through bitter experience, we can not be confident that Hackney Council shares our view or has residents’ interests at heart. We suspect that there is an agenda for Marcon Court to be the next in line for the building of costly private housing at the expense of public provision, located as it is near Hackney Downs station – commuter route to the City – and Hackney’s ‘cultural quarter’.

Our TRA is negotiating with the Council on behalf of residents. We know that we will also need a powerful campaign to win for residents, and that this will be most effective if we link up with our allies in the wider community and working-class movement.

So we are holding an open campaign forum, to learn from others’ experiences, to better understand what is happening, to rally support and to generate ideas:
MONDAY 12 MAY 7.30pm
ASPLAND & MARCON COMMUNITY HALL
corner of AMHURST ROAD and MARCON PLACE.