Brixton news, rumours and general chat

[CH1]

Lambeth council tenants ‘in precarious position’ after 350% service charge rise

Price hikes of up to £300 a month for communal heating and hot water driven by rapid increase in energy costs

www.theguardian.com

Buzz journalism being quoted in the Guardian

The poor person in that article conned me out of £1,500.
Borrowed £2,000 (after I'd made an earlier donation - £200 I think) for his "charity" the Eddie Surman Trust - which he said had cash-flow problems and was allegedly waiting for a grant from the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
In the end he only paid back £500. His attitude taught me a lot about "I'll pay you next week" and trust. Naturally I wanted to help a "charity" counselling people who were suicidal after an HIV diagnosis -
But playing on my sympathy for people who are suicidal because of the fears brought about by HIV/AIDS strikes me a repellant in retrospect. £1,500 was a lot of money to lose for me in 1998. Even now it's a lot more than he's complaining about regarding his heating bills. And don't people who are paying their own bills not in communal heating schemes have monstrous increases?
There is a whole thread here: My electricity bill has just tripled: how about yours? Alternative suppliers?
PS - I see from the cheque stub that this "charity worker" asked for the £2000 cheque to be made out to him personally. Why on earth didn't my fuck off alarm bell ring?
I know the Bible says it is more blessed to give than to receive - but that is not to take account of rip-off sheisters.

 

[pbsmooth]

And the reason we are here is because we could afford to buy a house here, but in order to afford it we had to be in the top 10% of household income.

It's unsustainable to have to be able to afford £2500-3000 per month in rent/mortgage as the price to live in Lambeth as a family.

I love London but it's harder and harder to fight the feeling - and it can be backed by various stats if you want to try and measure it - that the quality of life, in relation to the cost, is getting worse and worse. and probably fairly dismal compared to many other European countries, and other parts of england.

 

[Tulster218]

I love London but it's harder and harder to fight the feeling - and it can be backed by various stats if you want to try and measure it - that the quality of life, in relation to the cost, is getting worse and worse. and probably fairly dismal compared to many other European countries, and other parts of england.

The biggest downside to London is the cost of housing. The reason housing costs so much is because the supply is low and the demand is high. The reason the demand for housing is high, is because lots of people want to live here. The reason supply for housing is low is because people object to new housing developments near where they live. Your right to cheap good-quality housing is being balanced against existing residents right to a nice view. It's not going to change until the politics change.

 

[pbsmooth]

is there really that much objection of larger scale housing development by individuals happening in London? especially inner London? seems more of a green belt/home counties sort of thing.

at some point it will presumably break. 'there are no families in London any more because it's too expensive' and 'everyone wants to live here which means it's so expensive' presumably can't coexist forever.

 

[edcraw]

is there really that much objection of larger scale housing development by individuals happening in London? especially inner London? seems more of a green belt/home counties sort of thing.

at some point it will presumably break. 'there are no families in London any more because it's too expensive' and 'everyone wants to live here which means it's so expensive' presumably can't coexist forever.

I think there is a fair amount of opposition but not sure how successful it is at stopping stuff though def can make councillors nervous. Lots of fuss about replacing a Morrison’s and a large car park in Peckham at the moment.

Confrontation continues over Peckham Aylesham Centre development | South East Londoner

A new development masterplan for the Aylesham Centre in Peckham continues to anger residents, who liken the proposal to a "mini Canary Wharf".

www.selondoner.co.uk

I think another problem is that most new builds tend to be studios & 1 or 2 beds as that’s easier to sell so not aimed at families.

 

[Tulster218]

is there really that much objection of larger scale housing development by individuals happening in London? especially inner London? seems more of a green belt/home counties sort of thing.

at some point it will presumably break. 'there are no families in London any more because it's too expensive' and 'everyone wants to live here which means it's so expensive' presumably can't coexist forever.

The main opposition to new housing is baked into the legislation: The Town and Countryside Planning Acts, the Lambeth Local Plan etc.

If I were in charge we'd have 20-story tower blocks all over the place - anywhere where people were willing to pay for them. But I won't ever be in charge because nobody would vote for 20-story tower blocks near where they live.

People want more housing, but not in their back yard.

 

[Tulster218]

I think another problem is that most new builds tend to be studios & 1 or 2 beds as that’s easier to sell so not aimed at families.

At the moment their are lots of 'young professionals' forced to share large family homes. This isn't ideal. If there were more small studios then the young professionals could move out of their large shared houses, allowing larger families to move in.

Developers build what they think will sell, and that depends on what's currently in demand. If we leave them to build what they want, eventully there will be enough small studios, and they'll start building larger family homes. It'll all just balance itself out in the end.

 

[pbsmooth]

the other factor is landlords and rents of course. it is much more profitable to rent out an HMO than a family house. or even split a house into flats.

 

[edcraw]

just seen this on Twitter. It’s the continual thing that people object to developments of low level retail and car parks bang next to transport. This supposedly to protect the skyline of Edgware…

 

[nagapie]

The main opposition to new housing is baked into the legislation: The Town and Countryside Planning Acts, the Lambeth Local Plan etc.

If I were in charge we'd have 20-story tower blocks all over the place - anywhere where people were willing to pay for them. But I won't ever be in charge because nobody would vote for 20-story tower blocks near where they live.

People want more housing, but not in their back yard.

No one wants to live in 20 story tower blocks. The people I know in tower blocks don't even want to.

 

[edcraw]

No one wants to live in 20 story tower blocks. The people I know in tower blocks don't even want to.

Not sure that’s true:

Super-tall, super-skinny, super-expensive: the 'pencil towers' of New York's super-rich

The long read: An extreme concentration of wealth in a city where even the air is for sale has produced a new breed of needle-like tower

www.theguardian.com

 

[jimbarkanoodle]

No one wants to live in 20 story tower blocks. The people I know in tower blocks don't even want to.

I'm sure the thousands of families in London stuck on the council housing list and living in temporary accommodation would be happy to. It's clearly not logical for everyone in London to have a nice 1 up 1 down house.

 

[Gramsci]

There is housing going up all over the place in London. Just cycle around London and one can see it.

To argue that it's being stopped by nimbys is nonsense.

The Mayor Khan has been asking that rent controls be brought in for London. Something Corbyn supported by Starmer has rejected.

SNP in Scotland are experimenting with form of rent control.

The argument that it's all about supply and demand misses the point.

No one is forcing landlords to hike up rents to unsustainable levels for the average person.

Bring back rent controls for a start.

Also this idea about building tower blocks. It smacks of wanting to reduce hard won space standards.

Also the crass argument that it's just all about building misses out that this is not the case in planning terms.

Building new homes must go with providing amenities such as green space/ decent transport links etc etc.

You could just slap up tower blocks on every available bit of land. But this would be up as terrible place to live

In LJ we are getting new high density blocks of flats. Is the LJ station going to be improved? No

This is part of the problem with London. And why some residents object to new large scale development. The infrastructure that should go with it simply doesn't happen.

 

[Cat Fan]

"problem" with London is scarcity of land and abundance of amenities/public transport which makes it hugely desirable to live there, especially when infrastructure outside of London is so unreliable

Nowhere in the world is it cheap to live near large urban centres. The only societies that managed it were through massive state intervention like East Germany.

New builds are heavily financialised and exploited so people who buy them end up being squeezed by service charges and ground rent

Only solution is a massive land tax to encourage more equal distribution of wealth but it will never happen while the government has been captured by the wealthy

 

[nagapie]

I'm sure the thousands of families in London stuck on the council housing list and living in temporary accommodation would be happy to. It's clearly not logical for everyone in London to have a nice 1 up 1 down house.

I work in a community and have done for 20 years where families have been waiting for housing for years. None of them want a tower block or they could have moved by now. Some have been moved temporarily into council tower blocks and are desperate to get out.

 

[Cat Fan]

And for the people who think London isn't getting new housing, check this out!

Southwark is building third of England's council homes - Southwark News

Work started on 726 council homes in Southwark last year, according to government figures despite the borough already having crammed in a lot of housing, and

southwarknews.co.uk

 

[nagapie]

Not sure that’s true:

Super-tall, super-skinny, super-expensive: the 'pencil towers' of New York's super-rich

The long read: An extreme concentration of wealth in a city where even the air is for sale has produced a new breed of needle-like tower

www.theguardian.com

Maybe penthouses for the rich, I doubt that's what would be on offer for the poor.

 

[Cat Fan]

No one is forcing landlords to hike up rents to unsustainable levels for the average person.

In some cases, yes. But their bank may be forcing them to raise rent if they have a mortgage and it's gone up

 

[Gramsci]

In some cases, yes. But their bank may be forcing them to raise rent if they have a mortgage and it's gone up

The problem with all this is that their is a power imbalance.

the chain is:

Banks put up interest rates/ landlords put up rents/ renters pay more.

And where is the link in the chain for renters?

Renters get increase in pay? I don't think so. Hello employer my landlord just put up my rent as the bank increased interest rates. I therefore require a pay rise. I require X pounds more a month now. Thankyou.

No the way the chain works is that the Banks/ Landlords screw the little person.

Then they go on about how its not up to them. And they would rather not do but that is just how things are.

Sorry imo bring in rent controls and fuck landlords.

And to rant on if one talks to the younger generation rent one of the things that annoys them is at end of day the landlords are ( in this financial/ political set up) guaranteed a valuable asset at expense of the sweat of generation rent once mortgage is paid off. As assumption of landlords is that they have social right to seeing their asset increase in value.

 

[Tulster218]

I work in a community and have done for 20 years where families have been waiting for housing for years. None of them want a tower block or they could have moved by now. Some have been moved temporarily into council tower blocks and are desperate to get out.

The price of flats on the open market is a reliable indicator of how desirable they are.

Your experience is unrepresentative.

 

[edcraw]

Maybe penthouses for the rich, I doubt that's what would be on offer for the poor.

Slightly being facetious but think the point is that height alone doesn’t make poor flats. I do think there are issues with the service charges though that come with it and so difficult to deal with the problems with towers when it is social housing.

 

[CH1]

The price of flats on the open market is a reliable indicator of how desirable they are.

Your experience is unrepresentative.

I think you are using the wrong word there - you should be saying "how profitable they are".
Until the government intervenes and prioritises family housing for working people the depopulation of the centre will continue.
This is a slow-mo version of the Paris banlieues, As Google says "the youth culture of the banlieues is rooted in poverty"
Goodbye Brixton Uprising - hello Croydon/Thornton Heath knife crime.

 

[Gramsci]

The price of flats on the open market is a reliable indicator of how desirable they are.

Your experience is unrepresentative.

And your is?

Seems to me as long time poster here that nagapie should not be just dismissed as "unreprentative" because the so called "market" says something else.

This is as ideological as it comes. The "market" is a rational mechanism and a long time member of local community views should be dismissed as the so called market is right.

This is Neo liberal Tory thinking.

 

[CH1]

Slightly being facetious but think the point is that height alone doesn’t make poor flats. I do think there are issues with the service charges though that come with it and so difficult to deal with the problems with towers when it is social housing.

Your are right about that. I was rold about sheltered housing for old queens in a Vauxhall tower. The service charges alone are DOUBLE my worst winter fuel bill - EVERY MONTH.

 

[Gramsci]

I dont have a problem with tower blocks.

The problem I have is that they are seen as way of cramming in lots of housing.

That is not how they were used originally.

Take the Loughorough Estate. It has large blocks. But these are separated by large amounts of space. To give light and amenity space.

Its the streets in the sky. Not necessarily meaning more housing per acre. But a different kind of housing.

Tower blocks are not the panacea unless one is going to reverse the space and amenity standards.

 

[Tulster218]

I think you are using the wrong word there - you should be saying "how profitable they are".

Nope.

People make purchasing decisions based on how much they want something. They weigh up their options and make the best decision based on all of the information they have.

The fact that many people are willing to purchase flats demonstrates that, all things considered, they desire to live there. It's their best option.

The fact that housing is cheap in the northeast of Britain, isn't because there are no greedy landlords there. It's just that all things considered, it's a less desirable place to live.

 

[Gramsci]

Nope.

People make purchasing decisions based on how much they want something. They weigh up their options and make the best decision based on all of the information they have.

The fact that many people are willing to purchase flats demonstrates that, all things considered, they desire to live there. It's their best option.

The fact that housing is cheap in the northeast of Britain, isn't because there are no greedy landlords there. It's just that all things considered, it's a less desirable place to live.

FFS.

I know Generation Rent people who come from up North.

Reason they are here is jobs. Its not about "desirability". Im sure they would like to work nearer their families and friends.

You are working on basis of some kind of ideal market. Where actors are all equal.

Whole point is that the market is rigged.

Just as an aside. Do you support Khan the Mayor wanting rent controls?

 

[CH1]

Nope.
People make purchasing decisions based on how much they want something. They weigh up their options and make the best decision based on all of the information they have.
The fact that many people are willing to purchase flats demonstrates that, all things considered, they desire to live there. It's their best option.
The fact that housing is cheap in the northeast of Britain, isn't because there are no greedy landlords there. It's just that all things considered, it's a less desirable place to live.

Yes the north east is undesirable because it's de-industrialised. The economy there has collapsed over the last 50 years and nothing put in its place except they are now promised Free Ports of corruption.
I think you need to demonstrate that if Brixton had new social housing nobody would want to live in it.
As for people who can pay "market rents" they can do that anywhere can't they? Or you think market renters rent/or buy for high prices in Brixton because it's vibrant and edgy?
I guess on your argument One Hyde Park is THE MOST vibrant and edgy Revealed: The super-rich owners of One Hyde Park

The only mystery to me is why Hondo didn't go for something like One Hyde Park as a luxury residential building. Neither Lambeth Council nor the Mayor/GLA would have dared to turn that down!

 

[edcraw]

Your are right about that. I was rold about sheltered housing for old queens in a Vauxhall tower. The service charges alone are DOUBLE my worst winter fuel bill - EVERY MONTH.

I do wonder if, once new builds are less shiny and new, they’ll struggle to find people able to afford the service charges for the upkeep and they’ll all slowly decline and need to be replaced.

Used to live on Clapham Park in one of the ‘30s GLA built flats and service charge was super low as balcony access, no lift & no shared services whilst brick built with minimal upkeep. There’s a reason those are still around a century later whilst the 60s & 70s blocks there are being replaced.

 

[CH1]

I do wonder if, once new builds are less shiny and new, they’ll struggle to find people able to afford the service charges for the upkeep and they’ll all slowly decline and need to be replaced.

Used to live on Clapham Park in one of the ‘30s GLA built flats and service charge was super low as balcony access, no lift & no shared services whilst brick built with minimal upkeep. There’s a reason those are still around a century later whilst the 60s & 70s blocks there are being replaced.

If you mean Poynders Gardens - yes quite right - built like a tank.
On the other side of the road however you had Poynders Court - probably OK now, but when I represented the area it was the block from hell with shooting up in the stairways and some totally derelict flats.
Story was apparently that the block belonged to a barrister via Channel Islands companies and he was immune to Environmental Health notices from the council by virtue of his legal knowledge and off-shore ownership.
I believe its all nicely tidied up now - though I haven't been to look.
Poynders Gardens (LCC social housing originally)


Poynders Court - 1930s private rental block - ill used and still to my eye a bit knackered


Regarding useless blocks I have the answer