The Estate we"re in BBC1

[HelenaDove]

Programme about social cleansing on BBC1 Anyone else watching?

[NadiaWadia]

I have got half way through and will watch the rest tomorrow.

The housing estate was in a gorgeous setting , (I didn't realise there was anything like this in London actually) but the tower block did look really dilapidated, why was it not maintained properly? Surely it could have been renovated though, or was it allowed to become run down as a deliberate tactic, do you think?

How can the local council be improving the life of the residents of the area, when they will be forced out of their homes? And housed in an inferior block or pushed out of the area altogether? And for the ones that own their flats, who are having them compulsorily purchased they should be given a fair price so that they can buy something similar in the area. How can it be fair/legal not to?

How can this happen?

[NadiaWadia]

Not being a Londoner myself I did think the prices were crazy though. I learned that they would have needed £300,000+ to get a flat in the area and it was therefore very unfair they were only being offered £210,000.

But I couldn't help thinking they could move here to the East Midlands where you could get a decent 3 bed semi or small detached house for that price. I am sure the same is true of many other areas of the country.

But then, why should they have to leave their family, friends, jobs and everything they have always known, which is London-based I presume.

[HelenaDove]

The behaviour of the "regeneration" committee in the council meeting was disgusting.

They basically sat there grinning and laughing at the tenants. It was obvious they view them with absolute contempt.

[PseudoBadger]

This is my borough and the council are doing it on 3, maybe 4 estates across the borough. Barnet Council is a disgrace.
I spent many happy childhood years with my schoolfriends on that estate. A wonderful community.
The blocks got run down because the council stopped maintaining them. Simple.

[HelenaDove]

Thats just as i suspected while watching the programme Pseudo. Its very sad and its down to pure greed.

[HelenaDove]

This is a great blog on it


wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-beautiful-life-or-estate-were-in-bbc.html

[ThornyBird]

I watched most of it and was horrified at the attitudes of the council. They honestly couldn't see anything wrong with what was happening - or didn't care!

[BirthdayBetty]

I watched this and was also disgusted with the behaviour of the council and regeneration committee towards the residents.
It was a disgrace how the woman was thrown out of her home after she'd taken her daughter to school and didn't know where she and her daughter would be staying that night. Also she couldn't access her stuff. Fucking appalling behaviour.
Not to mention how their community was ripped apart. Some of the older residents had lived there since 60's/70's

[PseudoBadger]

"The merciless policies of [this] Tory authority" - this is such an accurate description of Barnet Council right now. Selling public land for nominal amounts (£3!!! in this case, other public land for similar pathetic amounts), closing libraries or making them completely useless, roads and infrastructure gone to shit, town centre parking extortionately expensive and ruining high streets and on and on and on.

[PseudoBadger]

Cornelius, for example, is a cunt.

[Sonnet]

Thanks for bringing this to my attention - will watch

[NotAnotherPackedLunchBox]

I've been seething about this all day.

I just can't process how on earth the members of the regeneration committee could stitch up the residents and then openly sneer and laugh at them in a meeting. To behave like that when they know they are being filmed shows arrogance beyond anything imaginable.

Has that footage made it onto youtube yet? I would hate for them to ever to be able to escape their revolting behaviour.

[HelenaDove]

YY Betty.......all the disruption and stress it causes in many ways including to the education of the tenants children. The disrespect and the utter contempt shown to tenants and their families is staggering.

And leaseholders being told they must also leave shows that ppl who have excersised their right to buy arent safe either.

I am utterly disgusted with that council Utter bastards.

[BirthdayBetty]

Utter bastards indeed. All for £3.00, fucking insulting to the lease hold residents, unbelievable

[PseudoBadger]

From the wonderful blog link:

"Barnet's housing spokesperson, Tom Davey, who wisely avoided being filmed for this programme, once said he was glad that places like West Hendon, with their monstrous towers of luxury accommodation, and penthouse flats, were being built not for local people, who would 'depend on council services', but for 'Russian oligarchs'. We want only well off people in Barnet, according to him"

There you have it ladies and gentlemen. If all you grotty fuckers who dare to need social housing and use council services could just fuck quietly off thank you very much.
Barnet is a perfect example of the Tory ethos. And there's no chance of them ever getting voted out here.

[PseudoBadger]

And another quote:

"The plans - threats - to 'regenerate' the council estates of London by Zac Goldsmith, followed by vague assurances of rehousing for existing tenants, must be measured by the history of promises made by Tory administrations here, in Barnet: and the message is clear, then - if you watched this programme tonight, and it appalled you, as it should, remember this, in May, when you are at the ballot box.

This is the future you do not want to see,in your borough, in your estate, or your community: but if we do not speak up now, the story of West Hendon, and every other regeneration estate in this borough, will be the story of London - and the end of social housing in the capital city."

[Owllady]

I'm attempting to download this atm!

[Owllady]

Gosh it was just terrible :( :(
How can the cpo even be legal at that price? They could even afford to buy anywhere
So
They stopped maintaining the council properties decades ago
They sold the land for luxury apartments for £3
They then built the luxury apartments directly in front of the existing, poorly maintained council/leasehold properties
Public meetings were not allowed to be filmed
People were evicted without notice on a high court judgement
Some council tenants were housed in bullshit house in the centre of town
Some were just being evicted with nowhere to go
The people who owned these properties couldn't afford to buy in the new
The ones featured in the program could only buy at a shared equity
Only 8 residents in total moved to the new block
Residents had their communities ripped apart, were manipulated, bullied, sneered and laughed at and had their health suffer
There was so much wrong I don't know where to start :(

[Blondeshavemorefun]

On planner. Need to watch

[CaurnieBred]

This is another estate "regeneration" that is happening in Barnet near me - Masterplan. All the land that is covered by this was social housing, a primary school, community centre and nursery.

This is the new site plan. You will see there is no social housing in the new plan - only what they call "Affordable Housing" - indicated by the grey ovals. It really is a social cleansing.

I do not live close enough to the development to have paid that much attention to it when all the plans were going through, but my DD attends one of the primary school close to it and some of her friends live on the estate. The Council made the same statements about this regeneration as they made about the West Hendon - that the families would be rehoused within the new development - so blithely, I got on with my life thinking all would be well. Now that the site plans are published you can see just how litte accommodation is going to be available and I now know that it was all just PR hype. Some of DD's friends are now traumatised by all the uncertainty and upheaval. I am ashamed at my passiveness.

The new estate is lovely; the demographics of that area are going to be turned on their head; and you won't recognise the intake at the primary DD attends in a few years' time - rather than the current multicultural, multi socioeconomic mix, it will become a very middle class school. Social cleansing indeed.

I was raised on a council estate. DH's parents had a minimal rent, assured tenancy in a grotty flat through a private landlord. We need decent, affordable housing for the "common people" (a la Mr Cocker/Pulp). DH and I were lucky - we are in our 40s, so were able to get on the housing ladder ~20 years ago (when I bought my 1 bed flat in SE London for £44k and he bought his 3 bed ex-council flat in North London for £80k). If we tried to buy our current house now, we would not be able to do so. I am glad we only have the one child - at least we know she will have a roof over her head when she grows up (and if house prices continue to grow at current rates, DH and I may even be millionaires (on paper) before we die, and all because we were in a position to buy a (nothing special) 1930s, 3-bedroom semi, at the right time)!

[HelenaDove]

These plans are much more far reaching than just the tenants. Less social housing also means less work and the possible ending of contracts for gas safety checks and maintenance.
So ppl who work for companies who do this may well be affected. Having seen the contempt a lot of these also show for tenants though my sympathy would run thin here.

Some of these companies are very happy to treat tenants badly and have bought into the demonization of SH tenants so they will be reaping what they have helped to sow when it comes back and bites them on the arse.

[PseudoBadger]

CaurnieBred - Ah Dollis Valley. Another estate allowed to fall into disrepair by the council so that the council could save the poor residents from the slums. DP grew up in Eastham Close so just out of the redeveloped site plan. The council will be glad to be rid of that 'drain on council resources' that's for sure.
Grahame Park (although not quite a clearance yet), Sweets Way, Clitterhouse/Brent Cross all getting the same treatment.
In order to stay in this borough where I've lived all my life we share my parents' house until I can find a good enough job far far away where we might be able to afford rent, never mind buying!

[PseudoBadger]

Barnet housing policy wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/temporary-people-or-is-barnet-broken-or.html?m=1

[HelenaDove]

From Badgers link.



I should say that by chance I met two of the residents who have now been evicted from their homes in Sweets Way. One was an elderly man with complex health problems, and who had had a heart attack as a result of the stress caused by the loss of his home. He was told to go and live in Hanwell.

The other was the mother of two boys who was given only the option of a flat in Grahame Park, another temporary location on another so called regeneration estate: she showed me the pictures of the filthy, squalid flat she was expected to move into with her children, with dirt, damp, and broken windows.

[HelenaDove]

This is what has been happening in Salford.


salfordstar.com/article.asp?id=2390