Conrad Landin
×
This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
EVICTED families squared up to the fat cat owners of their estate yesterday, berating them for “social cleansing” and “putting your own profits over all of our lives.”
Residents and former residents of the Sweets Way estate in north London were accompanied by their children as they delivered an emotive open letter to Annington Homes, a vulture privateer that buys up former army barracks and converts them to housing.
The estate, which is currently leased by the Notting Hill Housing Trust for social housing but will soon be turned into a luxury “garden village,” has become a symbol of the burgeoning struggle against gentrification in the capital.
Protesters have occupied an empty house on the estate and turned it into a “social centre.”
They were visited this weekend by comedian Russell Brand and Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger.
In the letter, which is addressed to Annington chief executive James Hopkins, the campaigners write: “Your choices are physically, emotionally and financially affecting us for the worse.
“Our lives and our children’s lives have been thrown into chaos, whether we are those still on the estate, or those moved into far-flung emergency accommodation.
“We have searched high and low to find alternative housing that is appropriate for our health, our work and our children’s education.
“We have repeatedly hit dead ends, knocking our heads against the walls with both Barnet Homes and countless estate agents.
“There is nothing out there for us, yet these perfectly good homes are facing demolition.”
The protesters even urged Mr Hopkins to visit their occupation to “experience the situation at Sweets Way from our perspective.”
