The next Axe The Housing Act campaign meeting will be held on Saturday August 6th at:
Unite Community office, Basement of St Georges Town Hall, 236 Cable Street, London E1 0BL.
Approximately 2 minutes from Shadwell DLR and Overground station. All welcome.
Sign the new petition calling for a repeal of The Housing and Planning Act 2016 here:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/162050
National March against the Housing and Planning Act.
This Saturday 12pm meeting point – Hyde Park Corner, London.
Communities across the UK need secure homes.
At last months strategy meeting the , renamed, ‘Axe the Housing Act’ campaigners committed to fight to prevent implementation of the hated Housing & Planning Act. The discussion ranged from calling on councils to block and stop implementation of the Act to building networks of resistance on estates and in communities to provide advice, stop evictions and stop the sale of council property and land.
People pointed out that we are fighting a government at war with itself. A government that is being investigated by 12 police forces as to whether it bought the last election. The Housing & Planning Bill was not in their manifesto but will result in the biggest fire sale of public homes and land to property developers in history. A divided government and an illegitimate Act.
On our side there are still millions of families living in council & housing association housing. Millions of people that the government wants to drive into the hell of the private rental sector with its uncontrolled rents and insecurity of tenure.
Our campaign has the task of continuing to explain to millions of people the disastrous impact of this Act will be. To help organise social housing tenants alongside private renters, lease holder and home owners to fight to defend and extend secure housing, controlled rents and the right to a decent home.
As a start a number of protests were called for June.
Our campaigners are organising estate meetings explaining the Act and organising resistance. If you want to help organise or need a speaker email killthehousingbill@gmail.com.
Leaflets and posters can be downloaded from ‘Resources’ menu.
We are then many they are the few.
SATURDAY 10AM-1PM
Central Baptist Church 235 Shaftesbury Avenue WC2H 8EP
Please share and help the campaign fight against this unfair housing act.
https://www.facebook.com/events/129403367473117/
Come and discuss how to take the campaign forward.
https://www.facebook.com/events/221362291559078/
IF YOU CARE ABOUT THE IMPACT OF THE HOUSING BILL> PLEASE ATTEND THIS IMPORTANT LOBBY MEETING
Mp’s will be debating the Housing and Planning bill on 3rd May in the House of Commons. This is a crucial debate that could see the Bill voted on this day.
Kill the Housing Bill camapigners will be meeting outside Parliament at 12pm to 2pm to demonstrate their opposition to the Bill. Then at 3pm we will be attending a meeting in the committee room in Parliament to lobby MP’s to vote against the bill.
Below is a template email and letter you can send to your MP and with links attached to find their contact details.
Model Email:
Dear __________ MP
As one of your constituents I am writing to ask you to oppose the Housing and Planning Bill.
This Bill, if passed, will undoubtedly make the national housing crisis worse.
At a time of acute shortages of truly affordable housing this Bill will lead to the loss of more social housing through the extension of right-to-buy to housing association tenants and the compulsory sale of ‘high-value’ council housing. It will replace affordable rented homes in new developments with starter homes that will be unaffordable (up to £450,000 in London).
This Bill will do nothing to help tenants struggling in expensive, insecure, unregulated private rental properties – but instead will force these conditions onto social tenants who will see their secure tenancies abolished and their rents raised through pay-to-stay.
The planning elements of the Bill will also enable more widespread demolitions of affordable social housing estates and reduce democratic local control of planning decisions.
Despite the numerous amendments that have been tabled to this Bill in the Lords, I am still extremely worried about the overall impact of this Bill and cannot see any positive reason to support even an amended version.
There is a full briefing on the Bill available on killthehousingbill.wordpress.com
I hope that you will speak out and vote against this Bill. I am coming to the national lobby of parliament organised by the Kill the Housing Bill Campaign on Tuesday 3rd of May and I would appreciate the opportunity to meet you in person to discuss my concerns and find out what you can do to address them.
There is a protest against the Bill outside parliament from 12pm to 2pm and a meeting inside from 3pm to 7pm. Please contact me by reply email or by phone on ********* to confirm when you will be available to meet on that day.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Kind regards,
_______________________
(Name, and give full address to confirm you are a constituent)
You can find your local MP email address on this link:
http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/
You can search for Lords to contact using this link:
https://www.writetothem.com/lords
Even MPs who oppose this Bill will be able to use letters from constituents as proof of widespread opposition, and you can add personal information about how the Bill will affect you that MPs can use when speaking on the Bill, so it is still well worth writing to them.
PRESS RELEASE
Wednesday 13 April – immediate release
Thousands to March With the Homeless and Sleep Out to highlight soaring homelessness and offer ‘solidarity not charity’
On Friday 15 April UK at 6pm, thousands will assemble at Downing Street to join aMarch With the Homeless, with the march culminating in a mass ‘sleep out’ at Southwark Council Offices from 9pm. The demonstration is being organised byStreets Kitchen, a homelessness justice organisation, and the Kill the Housing Billcampaign coalition, whose housing bill demo was attended by 10,000 people last month.
This Friday’s protest aims to highlight rising homelessness as well as provide practical support to those sleeping rough, in an offer of solidarity not charity. Campaigners say the Housing Bill will make many more people homeless. Protesters have been asked to bring tents, sleeping bags, food, clothes and shopping trolleys in preparation to March with the Homeless and offer #SolidarityNotCharity. Campaigners planning the ‘sleep out’ said that there would be music, free food, warmth and community.
As well as the central London protests, activities are planned across the capital and across the UK. On 15 April, there are March with the Homelessdemonstrations planned in ten UK towns and cities and Kill the Bill campaignersare gathering outside town halls and housing offices for sleep outs in Camden, Hackney, Hammersmith, Islington, Lambeth, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Harlow and Leeds. Faith leaders, homeless people’s organisations, community groups and local councillors will be attending the sleep outs.
The protest comes as two major elements of the Housing and Planning Bill were defeated in the House of Lords. The Government could be forced to make concessions following these embarrassing defeats, with opposition to the Bill outside of Parliament growing every day. Campaigners vowed to continue to fight every element of the Bill, as it threatens to force more people into insecurity and homelessness.
According to a broad definition of homelessness which includes people living in emergency or temporary accommodation, nearly a million men, women and children are set to become homeless by 2020 unless the Government takes action to address a crisis. Street homelessness has doubled in the last five years – with over 7,500 sleeping rough in London in the last year.
A spokesperson for Streets Kitchen said: “Streets Kitchen works tirelessly to provide essential services for the homeless community. We have seen levels of homelessness double since 2010, and we are calling this demonstration to demand an end to this crisis. There is no reason in this society for people not to be able to access adequate housing other than lack of political will. People on the streets are being killed by political indifference, and it is time for everyone to come together and shout ‘enough is enough’.”
A spokesperson for the Kill the Housing Bill campaign said: “As many people are beginning to recognise, the Tories’ Housing and Planning Bill will worsen the housing crisis and escalate homelessness. It aims to destroy council housing, condemning millions to a lifetime of insecure, expensive private renting, and does nothing for the rising number of people who have no secure place to call home. The Housing Bill is down and now is the time to kick it – we will continue the fight against every element of the Bill, both inside and outside Parliament. Everyone deserves a decent home, but landlords, developers and the rich are the only ones to benefit from this Bill.”
53 year old teaching assistant Janice Sweeney has never been politically active before but now spends much of her free time lobbying against the Housing Bill. She has raised considerable support from members of the House of Lords and will be at the West London Sleep Out at Hammersmith Town Hall. Jan explains: “I’m going out there to prevent my grandkids being homeless in the future. Whole working class communities are being broken apart.”
Protests are set to continue throughout this weekend and on Saturday 16 April, Kill the Bill campaigners will join a ‘Housing Bloc’ as part of the People’s Assembly demonstration for Health, Homes, Jobs and Education.
The Kill the Housing Bill campaign is supported is supported by Radical Housing Network, Defend Council Housing, People’s Assembly, GMB Union, National Union of Teachers (NUT), Communication Workers Union (CWU), Bakers Union, Unite Housing Workers, London Gypsy Traveller Unit, Focus E15 Campaign, Generation Rent, National Bargee Travellers Association, UCL Rent Strike Campaign, Goldsmiths Rent Strike Campaign, Leeds Hands Off Our Homes, The Green Party, Momentum, John McDonnell MP and Ken Loach, director of homelessness film Cathy Come Home, and many more.
Notes to Editors
1. According to homelessness charities and government’s own figures, seeIndependent.
2. See Guardian.
For further information and interviews please contact:
Katya 07791018631
Joe 07873557040
Email: killthehousingbill@gmail.com
Facebook Event: March with the Homeless
Facebook Page: Kill the Housing Bill
Twitter: @KillHousingBill @StreetsKitchen #KilltheHousingBill #MarchWithTheHomeless #SolidarityNotCharity
Website: killthehousingbill.wordpress.com / Streets Kitchen
Housing Bill: Government Suffers Major Defeats in Lords, as Kill the Housing Bill campaign grows
Two major elements of the Housing and Planning Bill have been defeated in the House of Lords last night. The Government could be forced to make major concessions following these embarrassing defeats, with opposition to the Bill outside of Parliament growing every day
The Lords supported two amendments to the Bill:
The first extends the Starter Home discount to twenty years, not five as the Bill stated.
The second allows councils to choose how many starter homes are built in their area in a bid to make sure affordable housing for those on low incomes remains a priority
A spokesperson for the Kill the Housing Bill campaign coalition, whose housing bill demo was attended by 10,000 people last month, said: “These defeats show just how unpopular the Tories’ bill is becoming. It’s clear that it will worsen the housing crisis, and force more people into homelessness. It aims to destroy council housing, condemning millions to a lifetime of insecure, expensive private renting.
Starter Homes – the bill’s flagship policy – are no solution to the crisis. They will help only the wealthy, and do nothing for the millions of people struggling with housing across the country. We will continue this fight against the bill, inside and outside Parliament. Everyone deserves a decent home, but landlords, developers and the rich will be the only ones to benefit from this Bill.”
On Friday 15 April UK at 6pm, thousands will assemble at Downing Street to join aMarch With the Homeless, with the march culminating in a mass sleep out at Southwark Council Offices from 9pm. The demonstration is being organised by the Kill the Housing Bill campaign and Streets Kitchen, a homelessness justice organisation.
Notes to Editors
For further information and interviews please contact:
Katya 07791018631
Joe 07873557040
Email: killthehousingbill@gmail.com
Facebook Event: March with the Homeless
Facebook Page: Kill the Housing Bill
