New Era Estate Tenants Fight Back

The effects capping of benefits can clearly be seen in what is happening to London residents, such as those living in the New Era Estate. Tenants are being pushed out of their homes so that speculators can sell or let these properties, trippling rents overnight.

All this behaviour has been seen before, and it takes one back to another era of (coincidentally) Conservative government, when 'bad landlordism' was given the name Rachmanism.

From Wikipedia - Peter Rachman (1919 – 29 November 1962) was a landlord in the Notting Hill area of London in the 1950s and early 1960s, who became notorious for his exploitation of his tenants. The word "Rachmanism" entered the Oxford English Dictionary as a synonym for the exploitation and intimidation of tenants.

In order to maximise his rental income from the properties in Notting Hill, he is said to have driven out the—mostly white—sitting tenants, who had statutory protection against high rent increases, and then filled the properties with recent immigrants from the West Indies. New tenants did not have the same protection under the law as had the previous ones, and so could be charged any amount Rachman wished. Most of the new tenants were West Indian immigrants who had no choice but to accept the high rents, as it was difficult for them to obtain housing in London at the time. Indeed, Rachman's initial reputation, which he even promoted in the media, was as someone who could help to find and provide accommodation for immigrants.

According to his biographer, Shirley Green, parts of the traditional Rachman story, such as the use of violence to drive away the sitting tenants (described by the press as "Rachman Terror Tactics"), may be mythical. More devious methods may have been used, such as moving the protected tenants in a smaller concentration of properties or buying them out, in order to minimise the number of tenancies with statutory rent controls. Houses were also subdivided into a number of flats in order to increase the number of tenancies without rent controls. Rachman who died age 48 of a heart attack, later became famous as a result of the Profumo scandal.

Ironically today New Era estate residents are fighting their own battle, (according to the Hoxteth Post) battling a landlord trying to achieve much the same objective. Buying up properties with sitting tenants then inflating the rents and driving them out of their homes. 

Westbrook Partners, the US property firm that owns the New Era estate, has indicated to Hackney Council that it plans to push ahead with its original development plans and raise rents to “market value”. When Westbrook Partners and the Benyon Estate bought the estate in April this year, residents were told they would be building penthouse apartments and refurbishing the existing flats.

They were also informed that to fund the development their rent would increase from £600 to £2,400 a month. Unable to afford the rise, 93 families protested against the plans, and with the help of ward councillors, secured a deal which delayed the rent increases and refurbishments until 2016. But Lindsey Garrett, one of the leaders of the campaign to save New Era, said that of the 93 flats, all but seven or eight were rented on contracts with two-week break clauses, meaning families could be evicted before Christmas.

The earlier promises about no new rent rises had never been formalised. Last Thursday, the Benyon Estate, owned by Richard Benyon, the Conservative MP, announced it was selling its 10 per cent stake in the estate.

Residents had mounted a highly publicised campaign, including a protest march with comedian Russell Brand, to force Benyon’s withdrawal from the estate. Comedian Russell Brand led protests last Saturday in a bid to save the New Era residents from eviction. Philip Glanville, the housing cabinet member, and other councillors delivered letters to residents on Saturday explaining the news the council had received from Westbrook Partners. The letters stated: “Since this week’s departure of the Benyon Estate, we understand the council have now been informed that Westbrook no longer plan to honour [the deal] and have been told that their plan is to refurbish the current estate in its entirety and then rent all the properties without secure tenancies at market rent levels with no affordable housing.” Danielle Molinari, another leader of the campaign said: “We were just breaking down when we found out. This has been a knock, but we are not going anywhere.”

She added: “Westbrook can threaten us as much as they like but we have everything to protect; our families, our children and our homes. We’re not going to go without a fight, because we have nowhere to go.” The estate was built in the 1930s to provide affordable housing for all, but has become sought after by investors because of its proximity to the fashionable location of Shoreditch.

On Sunday, Westbrook Partners announced the appointment of property services firm Knight Frank to manage the estate, in place of Benyon. Westbrook Partners was branded as “predatory landlords” in April this year when they invested in 44 buildings housing low-income families in New York, where they delayed repairs and raised the rent.

It all sounds rather familiar, and is hardly going to assist the government, whose arguments that benefit capping is fair to hardworking taxpayers, when in reality, driving people out of their homes, is benefitting those British and overseas investors, who want to make a fast profit, in a manner that Peter Rachman would have fully understood and most likely approved of.

Article Compiled courtesy of Wikipedia and the Hoxteth Post