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Tenants meet Minister to demand investment
DCH joined other council and housing association tenants at a meeting with Housing Minister Dominic Raab on 11 April 2018.
This was a 'round table' meeting organised by Grenfell survivors, to put our views to the housing minister in advance of the Green Paper on social housing.
Tenants spoke forcefully about security, public accountability, rent issues, and opposition to demolitions. Dominic Raab asked whether there is a stigma against social tenants because of our 'protected status'. He also said that one reason for estate redevelopment was the need to create more mixed communities. Paul Burnham of Haringey DCH said that Tottenham, which is set for mass demolitions, is already a mixed community, where every team playing in the World Cup has measurable local support.
It is a mixed community with a place for the poor and people with lower incomes, and council housing helps to provide social integration. There is no stigma attached to our secure tenancies or our rent regime, which we are proud of and want to protect.
The kind of new housing being built does not have a place for us. For example, a planned development at Wood Green in Haringey, has no social rent housing but only a few much more expensive 'Affordable rent' tenancies, and a poor door for affordable residents; the developer's viability consultant wrote that he wanted the Affordable rent tenancies restricted to households with at least £40,000 income a year.
The conclusion is that we do not want estate demolitions, and we need the restoration of government development grant for new council housing.
25 Apr 2018

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