Blue London
May 5th, 2012
This is a sad day for London. The election of Boris Johnson as Mayor for the second time, made worse by it being only a narrow victory, when seen in the light of his support for the Conservative administration of H&F and his planning decisions in support of the social cleansing policies of that borough, is not to be welcomed by anyone who cares about the plight of council tenants across London.
This blog was created as a direct result of an article in the Evening Standard on Thursday 9th July 2009 highlighting the intention of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham to rid the borough of council estates and their residents. In the nearly three years since they have gone some way towards this and certainly done little to reassure the worried that their intentions are otherwise.
Double trouble kills Earl’s Court scheme
March 15th, 2012
Below is a press release from Jonathan Rosenberg, courtesy of this blog, regarding the ongoing fight to save the West Kensington and Gibbs Green council estates
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Government says yes to empowerment! Community says no to demolition!
West Kensington & Gibbs Green residents have welcomed the Government’s publication of draft regulations for a new Right to Transfer, which empowers them to take over their homes.
Through regulations, published for consultation today, S34A of the 1985 Housing Act will give the Secretary of State power to force councils to co-operate with requests from tenants to transfer the ownership of their homes to the community.
H&F Town Hall – there goes the skyline
December 1st, 2011
Will this never end? By the time this lot are ditched in 2014 the area around Hammersmith Bridge will be changed utterly and for the worse.
At a planning meeting last night the council agreed a scheme to redevelop the area around the Town Hall and build several residential blocks of up to 15 storeys.
More here http://www.saveourskyline.co.uk/
Hammersmith & Fulham council – Great lies of our time
November 25th, 2011
Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council today welcomes the return of Right to Buy, but says that local authorities should have the freedom to be able to retain all of the proceeds from the scheme so that they can build more affordable homes.
http://www.lbhf.gov.uk/Directory/News/Councils_should_retain_all_the_proceeds_from_Right_to_Buy.asp
Next week on the evening of November 30th there will be a planning meeting http://www.saveourskyline.co.uk/index.php for a scheme that will include NO affordable homes.
Nicky Gavron on mixed estates
August 31st, 2011
“The mayor wants private, market housing to be built in areas with lots of social housing. But his plan does not seek new social housing in areas with lots of private homes.”
An article from the Guardian today highlights yet again where the Tory London administration is failing when it comes to housing policy. Nicky Gavron has been spot on with her analysis of where the problem lies and has been saying this for some time but nobody seems to be listening.
West Ken & Gibbs Green – the FOI documents
June 3rd, 2011
On 6th May 2011 Inside Housing reported the following:-
Hammersmith & Fulham wants to stop tenants blocking redevelopment
Dave Hill picked up the story from Inside Housing and wrote the following article:-
Earls Court redevelopment: Stephen Greenhalgh asks for ‘wider benefit tests’ to limit tenants’ power
Now the correspondence that passed between Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, Grant Shapps, Sheridan Westlake, and Greg Clark has been released under an FOI request made by Inside Housing.
Click image for full document
West Ken & Gibbs Green response to Draft SPD
May 15th, 2011
In response to the Draft Joint Supplementary Planning Document. First Draft for Public Consultation March 2011
the residents of the two estates under threat have issued their response:-
A comprehensive and damning indictment of the plans put forward to replace the estates.
Kate Davies and H&F
May 4th, 2011
Fun with Nick and Kate
Both the Independent on Sunday and the Daily Mail featured the erstwhile director of housing for Hammersmith, Nick Johnson, and his partner, Kate Davies, this week. Good investigative journalism but slightly missing the point, which is why are they paid so much out of public funds to promote private housing?
The same day I saw these stories I got notice of a planning application from Notting Hill Housing (prop. Kate Davies). It is to build 41 properties on the former VW garage site in King Street. Four of these will be five-bedroomed town houses in St Peter’s Square, each retailing for about £3million on the open market – which is what all 41 will be doing. Apparently, there is insufficient equity in the site for this housing association – whose only purpose for existing and paying its chief executive is to house people on low incomes – to build a single affordable home.
282 Goldhawk Road update
October 18th, 2010
UPDATE: 3/12/12
The two plots 282/292 were subsequently sold to First Base who short listed four practices of which two are known to be PTEa and MAE, the project was given to PTEa after each practice gave a presentation of their intended plans.
Last year the housing association Places for People put forward a scheme at 282 Goldhawk Road designed by Peter Barber architects for housing on the site of a former old peoples home, which proved to be unpopular with local residents not only for its height and potential to overlook adjoining property but for its poor design.
I wrote two articles about the intended development, one here
http://www.singleaspect.org.uk/?p=207
and a shorter one here
http://www.singleaspect.org.uk/?p=286
Tonight saw the AGM of the Ashchurch Residents Association at the Sulgrave Club, more or less opposite the site in question which was notable for being attended for its duration by Nick Johnson, Head of H&F Homes in the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, Councillor Lucy Ivimy and more briefly by the leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council, Stephen Greenhalgh.
Blighted homes
March 29th, 2010
Long before residents of council estates under threat stand any chance of being rehoused into the new part of phased redevelopments there is a significant danger of them becoming “the dispossessed” – those unfortunates scattered about a former estate in the midst of abandonment, vermin infestation, squatters and burned out flats. If it were only a one off that would be worrying enough but there is clear evidence that carelessness and lack of consideration for the tenants by the councils is commonplace.
Fulham Court
“Between 1982 and 1986 the Tory/Liberal coalition council emptied most of the 400+ flats in Fulham Court with a view to selling it to a private developer for refurbishment as private flats. Tenants were re-housed by going to the top of the waiting list which meant the rest of the borough’s tenants had a lower priority. A spirited campaign by tenants including marches and legal actions and the decision by a group of tenants to stick it out meant that by the time the Tories lost power in 1986 there were still residents in some blocks. By that time some of the estate had been sold to the developer and the rest was dilapidated – empty flats were boarded up, only essential maintenance had been done and lack of care by the council meant there was squatting, fly tipping and infestation. Labour cut a deal with the developer to buy back what was sold and refurbished the whole estate as council homes, as it has remained since.”
Andy Slaughter MP
That was then but now the estate is under threat again from the Leader of Hammersmith & Fulham Stephen Greenhalgh and his plans to rid the borough of council tenants.