The Grenfell Action Group is delighted to announce that we have recently joined the Radical Housing Network. The network is a collection of different housing groups in the London area who are committed to collectively challenging unjust housing policies in London through sharing knowledge, collective working and a willingness to use “Direct Action”.
http://radicalhousingnetwork.org/
This may be of interest to Councillor Feilding Mellen (Cabinet Member for Housing, Property and Regeneration), Laura Johnson (Director of Housing) and their quislings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Housing Dept. who think that they can act with impunity in their treatment of those in need of housing, those currently at risk of being hounded out of their social housing tenancies and those who are still stuck on the RBKC Council’s housing waiting list.
The RBKC Housing Dept has recently removed 6500 households from the Council’s Housing Register via the inhumane decision to change the rules governing eligibility for social housing in the Rotten Borough. In one brutal stroke RBKC has decided that these households should be removed from the existing housing list because the Council has decreed that they do not have sufficient priority for re-housing or have not been able to reside in the Borough for the last three years. In addition to this RBKC will no longer offer social housing tenants a life-time tenancy and instead successful applicants will only be offered fixed-term tenancies , usually for five years and sometimes, in exceptional circumstances, for only two years.
RBKC has no intention of responding to the housing needs of the poor and excluded in the Borough and has redesigned local housing allocations criteria to cater for the needs of supposed “hard-working families doing the right thing”.
Readers of this blog will already be aware of the Council’s policy of the “managed decline” of the social housing stock in North Kensington with the aim of letting our homes descend into slum’s before the Council then intervene to “socially cleanse” our communities under the guise of “regeneration”.
Readers of this blog will also be aware of the Council’s recent decision to increase social housing rents by 10% every year for the next five years with the explicit intention of pricing working class community’s out of the Royal Borough.
The Grenfell Action Group believes that by joining forces with other radical housing groups we can work more effectively towards bringing “Direct Action” to the streets (and parks) of Kensington and Chelsea to fight against the unjust and immoral policies of the RBKC Housing Dept.
STOP PRESS
Upcoming Radical Housing Network events:
Starting Saturday, April 26
Two days of housing action across London
Come together to take action on the Housing Crisis
In: Brent, Camden, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Central London.
Bringing together those affected by bedroom tax, housing benefit caps, the squatting ban, rising rents, dodgy landlords, poor quality housing and gentrification.
DAY ONE: Saturday 26th April
Events in: Lewisham, Southwark, Brent and Camden, Lambeth and Hackney
DAY TWO: Sunday 27th April 11am-6pm
Discussions, Action planning, Workshops, Training, Tea and Cake.
33-37 Moreland Street, EC1V 8BB
https://www.facebook.com/events/835629819798075/?context=create&source=49
Grenfell Action Group 