Paul B from Haringey Defend Council Housing sets out the case.
The government wants to increase social formula rents by CPI inflation plus 1% a year for ten years, PLUS an additional amount for ‘rent convergence’, which could be an additional £2 increase a year for ten years on top. This is targeting some of the worst off people in society.
There is a consultation which lasts until 27 August on HOW rent convergence should be implemented.
The case for these increases is based on the assigned market value for each property, as set by the landlord, and there is plenty of evidence that landlords set these values much too high.
Landlord rent calculations cannot be trusted. Freedom of Information replies show that in a substantial number of cases in London, Social Rents for new homes have been set ABOVE the permitted maximum (“the Social Rent Cap”) – in as many as 32% of cases.
REAL rent convergence would mean getting rid of Affordable Rent and London Affordable Rent, and using Social Rent for all social rent homes.
Let’s use the consultation period to put the case against these unjustified rent increases, and bring an end to so-called “affordable rents”.
Southwark Council rejects Aylesham Centre proposal following SHAPE Anti-Berkeley Party, 15 July
PECKHAM SAID NO!
Up to 50 people came to the Anti-Berkeley Party followed by a packed out planning committee meeting which went on for more than 5 hours.
💥Decision on Aylesham Centre site – REFUSED ⭐️Planning committee refused the application with three reasons – Heritage, affordable housing, retail space. The business relocation strategy is to return to committee if the Inspector approves the scheme. ⭐️Developers have already gone to appeal to the Planning Inspector, inquiry scheduled for October. ⭐️ACA will be crowd funding for legal representation.
There is no doubt whatsoever that the application was refused because of the strength of the campaign – ACA has been fighting for five years. And in the last year the SHAPE Coalition has called three lobbies of the Council, a 100 strong public meeting two demonstrations – the one in March was 600 people – and a party!
👏Thank you everyone who made this result possible.
We prevented the Council from setting a dangerous precedent by approving a scheme with 12% ‘affordable’ housing.
But the system is stacked against us. We need a planning and housing revolution!
What is the next stage? Berkeley has appealed to the Planning Inspector, so the government will now decide what’s best for Peckham. The undemocratic planning regime has decreed that we can’t decide for ourselves. This is why we are fighting not just for Peckham, but for a revolution in housing and planning policy where people, not profit, come first.
Homes for People – Not for Profit! Housing is a human right! Stop the megadevelopments! ✅ 50% Council housing on private land ✅ 100% Council housing on council land
Housing and planning campaigners headed to the culture tent at Marxism 2025 on Sunday to discuss ‘why we need a housing and planning revolution’.
Over 80 people attended, with contributions from Just Space, Living Rent Scotland and ACORN. Another participant in the meeting raised how impressed they were with how H4A raised broader political issues in their campaigns such as anti-racism and asked for advice on how to get their campaign to do the same.
The meeting, hosted by Morag Gillie from Homes For All was an opportunity to consider the kind of change we need, and how to fight for it. Morag said “There were too many people waiting to speak and as usual we ran out of time.” After the meeting people formed two long queues for getting involved and taking away leaflets. 14 people signed up to the H4A WhatsApp group and we ran out of leaflets on both tables!
Destructive
Eileen Conn from Peckham Vision spoke about her personal story as a grassroots campaigner for 50 years with much of it about neighbourhood planning issues. She gave a snapshot of the current 5-year campaign against Berkeley’s plans for the overdevelopment of the Aylesham site in Rye Lane which locals view as destructive to Peckham as a place, to the town centre and its diverse vibrant local economy.
“This phenomenon is happening all over London and other places across the country and why we need to bring grassroots housing campaigners together with planning campaigners. This is to mobilise local people everywhere onto the streets for a total change in the national housing policies and planning policies” Eileen Conn, Peckham Vision
Struggles
Paul Burnham from Defend Council Housing spoke about UK housing policy since 1914, pointing out how struggles from below had driven high priority council house building campaigns in the past. There had also been other successes from campaigning over a long series of issues and struggles. Paul pointed out that Angela Rayner’s latest promise of £39 billion of social and affordable housebuilding, including 180,000 social rent homes over ten years, must be examined alongside the government’s tenure-blind target for 1.5 million new homes over five years.
“When all these schemes are up and running, there would be 300,000 new homes a year, of which 18,000, that is, only 6%, would be at social rent. That is not going to cut it.” Paul Burnham, Defend Council Housing
Developers
Tanya Murat from SHAPE Coalition said solving the housing emergency would mean a new generation of council housing – for all, wherever you were born. She outlined the need to struggle on many fronts. We have to call for the requisitioning of empty homes; we must break the power of landlords and fight for a nationally enforced system of rent control now. The government must end the building safety scandal, and we need Justice for Grenfell. We have to stand up to developers.We must demand – Refurbish don’t demolish. We have to support campaigners who are fighting to stop their councils demolishing structurally sound housing.
“Expecting developers to solve the housing emergency is like expecting fossil fuel companies to solve the climate emergency” Tanya Murat, SHAPE (Southwark Housing and Planning Emergency)
