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Dexter Deadwood said:
I would go further and support a windfall capital gains tax on landlords especially the buy to let mob
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Just a technical point here. It seems to me that the spread of buy-to-let, and also the prolific growth of top-end rental concerns such as Lexadon is caused by the way business taxation is currently charged (or not).

For landlords the way to avoid tax (other than getting into an offshore tax avoidance scheme) is to keep reinvesting the profits into new properties. Then you have a situation similar to compound interest.

These buy to let people are budding Jerry Knights. I was taken aback to read on Lambeth Planning's website a number of objections to the new Rosa's Restaurant planning application at 400/402 Coldharbour Lane from people worried about the let-ability of their flats.

I come from a generation where that seems quite brazen, but frankly buy to let is now considered more acceptable that social housing.

Where do we go from here?
 
Gramsci said:
In the end its the Council building on Somerleyton road. Council own the land and can borrow cheaply.
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The FT has been going on about a new form of local authority council bond being launched in April jointly by some authorities. Lambeth was not mentioned - but the interesting point was that the existing borrowing channels (Public Works Loans Board) is imposing controls over the councils which the councils do not accept - the alternative being charging higher interest rates.

Lambeth have always maintained that they can put together a finance package form PWLB. I wonder if this is all agreed and sown up - or still at an exploratory stage?
 
CH1 said:
Just a technical point here. It seems to me that the spread of buy-to-let, and also the prolific growth of top-end rental concerns such as Lexadon is caused by the way business taxation is currently charged (or not).

For landlords the way to avoid tax (other than getting into an offshore tax avoidance scheme) is to keep reinvesting the profits into new properties. Then you have a situation similar to compound interest.

These buy to let people are budding Jerry Knights. I was taken aback to read on Lambeth Planning's website a number of objections to the new Rosa's Restaurant planning application at 400/402 Coldharbour Lane from people worried about the let-ability of their flats.

I come from a generation where that seems quite brazen, but frankly buy to let is now considered more acceptable that social housing.

Where do we go from here?
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I wish i knew, the thing is not to lose hope. I'm currently reading The Democracy Project - David Graeber, an excellent book that kept me up very late last night. One observation that did give me hope was that he and other activists remarked during the early days of Occupy and the Arab Spring that things often seem insurmountable, there is no traction in protest; a million people marching in London cannot stop an illegal war, people lose hope, they give up. Then all of a sudden we have Tahrir Square, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy everywhere and i think the key is in the form of protest.

People don't want top down organised protests with pre printed placards, they want to be engaged, they want to be involved in the very form the protest takes and when they are it becomes personal. The mainstream media can continue to ignore or downplay a protest but it no longer matters because they have been circumnavigated.

With regards to housing, i would go after the landlords and the bigger fish of a mindset that sees property as an investment; a gamble in other words. What's practical and what's possible in the short to medium term at least you would have a better idea of.
 
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Latest updates from Lambeth Housing Activists

Guinness Trust

The campaign to stop the evictions from Guiness trust has a number of elements. Housing associations are increasingly acting like any property developer and private landlord and so a lot of the campaign focus is on highlighting and challenging this contradiction.

  • . A general petition to highlight the fact that this Housing Association is eviction vulnerable people including single parents and their children who have lived on their estate for years.
You can sign the petition on-line at : https://www.change.org/p/simon-dow-...ions-of-tenants-from-loughborough-park-estate

We will be petitioning this outside Brixton tube every Saturday from 11am to 1pm. COME ALONG AND SUPPORT!
 
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The Radical Housing Network of week of action 14th to 23rd Feb in build up to the mayors budget


Mayor Boris Johnson budget goes to the vote on 23 February and if passed, will mean more sky-high rents, sell-offs of the public land we need to build council housing and ‘affordable’ housing that most people can’t afford. It’s a recipe for bigger profits for landlords and developers, and more social cleansing and homelessness for ordinary Londoners.

Join us to BLOCK THE BUDGET and demand SOCIAL HOUSING NOT SOCIAL CLEANSING


https://www.facebook.com/events/828141947231932/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

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On Saturday 14th February Lambeth Housing Activists will be taking part in the 'Love Council Housing, Love Social Housing, Love our Estates' protest taking place across London.


We will be having stalls and actions in Lambeth on 'Love Council Housing' from12pm-2pm.

Our actions and stalls will be followed by a film showing of 'Utopia' and other short films about the struggle for housing, plus discussion & food from 5pm at the Art nouveau café, 77 Atlantic Road, Brixton. We will be discussing the gentrification and mass evictions of Network Rail sites. http://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2015/02/...along-atlantic-road-and-brixton-station-road/
 
Gramsci said:
On Saturday 14th February Lambeth Housing Activists will be taking part in the 'Love Council Housing, Love Social Housing, Love our Estates' protest taking place across London.


We will be having stalls and actions in Lambeth on 'Love Council Housing' from12pm-2pm.

Our actions and stalls will be followed by a film showing of 'Utopia' and other short films about the struggle for housing, plus discussion & food from 5pm at the Art nouveau café, 77 Atlantic Road, Brixton. We will be discussing the gentrification and mass evictions of Network Rail sites. http://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2015/02/...along-atlantic-road-and-brixton-station-road/
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I try and make this, it's unlikely i will have any romantic engagements.
 
Greebo said:
To clarify: Liked that you'll try and get there, not for the lack of romantic engagements.
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I'm not a great romantic to be honest would rather get down and do the business. It comes with age. All that fluffy stuff is for the younger generation.
 
Evictions from rented homes hit record levels in 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/feb/12/evictions-rented-homes-record-levels-2014

It's mostly poor people being evicted from rented homes often because of benefits sanctions but if you are a homeowner you have never had it so good.

"Meanwhile, mortgage costs have fallen and lenders have continued a programme of forbearance for borrowers struggling with repayments.
The number of people who fell behind with their mortgage repayments or had their home repossessed last year fell to the lowest level in eight years, according to data from lenders."
 
Renters paid £4,000 more than owners for same property over past five years.
http://www.theguardian.com/money/20...owners-for-same-property-over-past-five-years

The free market cannot regulate housing, to be fair that's not it's function; it simply doesn't care. The fact that it is considerably cheaper to buy a property than to rent it is a fundamental perversion that obviously hits the poorest hardest, i guess that's the idea.
 
OCCUPATION AT GUINNESS TRUST BRIXTON ESTATE

Lambeth Housing Activists
15 Feb 2015 — Yesterday, an empty flat in Elveden House on the Guiness Trust estate in Brixton was by occupied in protest at the evictions that many residents on the estate are threatened with.

The plan is to keep the occupation running as long as possible so please spread the word and come down to visit and support. You can find us at 82 Elveden House, Loughborough Park, Brixton, SW9 8NN (about 10 minutes walk from Brixton tube). And check out our wishlist here in case you can help with anything we need.

‘Shorthold’ tenants – many have been there for ten years and longer – are facing eviction to make way for Guinness to demolish the estate and build luxury apartments which will go on sale at full market rate. Of course none of the tenants being evicted can afford to buy the new flats and are facing leaving London, jobs, schools, friends and their community to find somewhere affordable to live. But many residents are saying no and refusing to go.

The occupation is part of the campaign to support those residents who are demanding from Guinness Trust:

NO EVICTIONS
REHOUSE ALL ‘SHORTHOLD’ TENANTS IN SECURE LOCAL SOCIAL HOUSING
Facebook: Guinness-Trust-AST-Tenants
web : https://guinnessoccupation.wordpress.com/
Twitter: #guinnessoccupation

Guinness Occupation
Yesterday, an empty flat in Elveden House on the Guiness Trust estate in Brixton was by occupied in protest at the evictions that many residents on the estate are threatened with. The plan is to keep the...
https://guinnessoccupation.wordpress.com
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editor said:
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Guinness Trust smashes up its own property as it looks to evict Brixton tenants

Note: There is resident-led protest at 9am tomorrow morning (Monday 16th Feb), and everyone is invited to come down and show support outside the Guinness Trust office off Loughborough Park road (see directions here). I can't make it but if anyone is going, please send us some pics!
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TBF, councils, HAs and landlords in general smashing up or removing the facilities in voided social housing is a standard tactic that's been around since the '80s, so I'm not surprised that the Guinness Trust have done it. here on Cressingham, and those bits of Clapham Park that had central heating, they used to rip the boilers out too.
 
ViolentPanda said:
TBF, councils, HAs and landlords in general smashing up or removing the facilities in voided social housing is a standard tactic that's been around since the '80s, so I'm not surprised that the Guinness Trust have done it. here on Cressingham, and those bits of Clapham Park that had central heating, they used to rip the boilers out too.
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Yes, they did at Cooltan in the 90s. It's a disgraceful practice.
 
Demo this morning by those under threat of eviction by Guinness Trust.

As usual GT closed the estate office. Police turned up as they have before.

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Statement from the protest at Guinness Trust:

We need social housing not social cleansing

STOP THE EVICTIONS!

Residents of Loughborough Park Estate in Brixton and their supporters have occupied 82 Elveden House and have pledged to resist ALL attempted evictions by the GUINNESS Housing Association.

Guinness are evicting dozens of longstanding residents who they took on as ‘short-hold’ tenants over a decade ago. They want them out to make way for new luxury apartments and tenants are being forced to move away from schools, jobs and friends to find somewhere affordable to live.

This is SOCIAL CLEANSING – not what a SOCIAL HOUSING landlord should do! Many of the tenants are refusing to leave. Support their campaign - sign the online petition; help resist the evictions; join the occupation – come down anytime; protest at City Hall 23rd of February 9am

PROTEST at Guinness Housing Office every morning 9am.

OCCUPATION MEETING every day 7pm 82 Elveden Hse SW9 8NN

Thursday Feb 19 RESIST EVICTION – STOP BAILLIFS EVICTING A FAMILY 9.30am Elveden Hse, Loughborough Pk, SW9 8NN

PETITION & BACKGROUND INFO: 07538316548 www.housingactivists.co.uk, FACEBOOK Guinness Trust AST Tenants

When we protested this morning at the guinness office it remained locked - the staff were told to stay at home rather than face questions from their own tenants.

We will keep going back until they face up to tenants. How can Guinness defend their actions sending bailliffs to evict a family onto the street and be so cowardly to refuse to even face those people in person?


www.housingactivists.co.uk,

FACEBOOK Guinness Trust AST Tenants



We still need people to volunteer to be on the rota to keep the occupied flat occupied at all times. If you can spare some time please pop down or email/text to say when you can come.

We are getting interest on social media - please tweet using #guinnessoccupation and #housingaction and you can share updates posted on lambeth housing activists group on facebook

We also have our own blog with updates on the occupation - https://guinnessoccupation.wordpress.com/
 
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