Advisory Service for Squatters

People might think something needs to be done about Shoreditch, but on the 3rd March an Interim Possession Order was granted on the whole of the Bishopsgate Goodsyard, including Shoreditch High Street station, the football pitches, the car wash and the “boxpark” shops.

Anyone in occupation at the time that the order was served should have left the land, and anyone using the station or the football pitches, or entering the shops could have been liable for arrest if accused of, or considered by police to be trespassing. How would they tell?

There was meant to be a follow-up hearing on the 10th at which the IPO might have come to an end, and at which a full possession order might have been made, giving Network Rail the right to bring in bailiffs to remove everyone from the land. That would be interesting.

The IPO was made by Mrs Justice Asplin DBE in the High Court, having agreed that service of the claim and application be reduced to 5 hours and 45 minutes. The claim doesn’t seem to have been served on all of the land covered by the order. A Guy Thornet for Network Rail had signed a statement that there was nobody else with any right to occupy the land, ignoring the thousands of people with a licence or tenancy to be on the land. This could be considered by some to be a criminal contravention of s75 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 as well as contempt of court.

The IPO itself was obviously not served on the whole of the land claimed, but was found on a mainly unused gate round the back. It was not in the correct format, but was cobbled together by Network Rail, and did not make clear what land was covered. So, all in all it would be pretty easy to argue against arrest and/or conviction, but it is concerning that an order was made that so clearly included land that wasn’t served and whose occupiers had every right to be there.

13-14 February: Weekend of Action: Love Council Housing, Stop the Housing Bill.
including Saturday 13th Charlie Chaplin walk from East Street market, 12.00;
Focus E15 stall in Stratford Broadway 12-2;
Sunday 14th 12-5 Housing Co-op history walk and screening of short films about housing, including Coin Street. More info contact coophousing@mail.com

13 March: National Demo: March For Homes – Against The Housing Bill, 12.00 Lincoln’s Inn.

The 14th edition of the Squatters Handbook is being worked on!
We are looking for relevant pictures (photos, cartoons, diagrams), offers of proof-reading or lay-out, any comments on anything in the last handbook or our current leaflets to correct or improve.
We don’t promise to use anything.

The next debate on the bill is the first week that MPs are back, on Tuesday 5 January. So we need to hit the ground running in 2016. Join the rolling demonstration outside parliament from 12 noon, followed by a Kill the Housing Bill campaign meeting inside from 5pm (allow 30 mins to get through security).

The Kill the Housing Bill campaign also has an organising meeting on Saturday 16 January, from 11am to 1pm at the Unite offices at 128 Theobalds Road, London WC1X 8TN.

If you can’t make it to either of these events (and even if you can), you can also contact your MP and demand that they don’t let it through. You can find a template letter here.

Let’s stop this attack on homes for all!

The Housing and Planning Bill is one of the most dangerous and far-reaching pieces of legislation passed in this country in a long time, yet its true impact has been unreported in the mainstream press and is largely unknown to the general public.

If passed, the Bill will:

1) Replace the obligation to build homes for social rent with a duty to build starter homes capped at £450,000 in London and £250,000 in England;

2) Extend the Right to Buy to housing associations without the obligation to replace them, further depleting the number of hoems for social rent;

3) Compel local authorities to sell ‘high value’ housing, either transfering public housing into private hands or freeing up the land it sits on for property developers;

4) Force so-called ‘high income’ tenants with a total household income over £30,000 (£40,000 in London) to pay market rents;

5) Grant planning permission in principle for housing estates designated as such to be redeveloped as ‘brownfield land’;

6) Phase out secure tenancies and their succession to children and replace them with 2-5 year tenancies – with such tenancies also being applicable to tenants who have been ‘decanted’ for the purposes of redevelopment.

We’re not going to be open much until the new year, but we will be regularly popping in to pick up emails and messages, so, send us an email or leave a message on our answerphone and we’ll get back to you.

You can normally leave a message downstairs in Freedom Bookshop but they will be closed from 25th December to 3rd January.

Crisis at Christmas will be having their usual daycentres and emergency residential centres from 23 to 29 December in London (and elsewhere). The nearest pickup to us is outside Christ Church, Spitalifields, with buses between 9am and midday.

Check http://www.crisis.org.uk fro more details.

A homeless ex-soldier aged 82 died hours after he was evicted from his city centre squat.

Known only as George, he is believed to have passed away from bronchial pneumonia, a support group for veterans has revealed.

see more at http://streetskitchen.co.uk/homeless-ex-soldier-82-dies-hours-after-being-evicted-from-his-squat-in-manchester-city-centre/

DIRECT ACTION IN A TIME OF CRISIS: WHERE NOW FOR THE GRASSROOTS HOUSING MOVEMENT?
Saturday 14th November, 10am – 6pm

The Radical Housing Network brings together over 30 grassroots housing groups from around London, fighting against gentrification and social cleansing; fighting for decent homes for all.

Groups within the Network have been at the forefront of the explosive housing movement over the past 3 years. From the community-led occupations of Carpenters Estate, Sweets Way and Guinness Trust, to the daily struggles to stop evictions across the city, the energy to fight for housing justice keeps building.

After 3 years of direct action and community organising, we want to explore where we’re at, and where we go from here. This event will be highly participatory, with plenty of time for group discussion.

All Saints Community Centre, 105 New Cross Road, SE14 5DJ

http://radicalhousingnetwork.org

check out http://www.private-eye.co.uk/registry for useful info from H M Land Registry on property recently acquired by foregin companies. Some will be for tax dodging purposes, maybe a few not, but useful info anyway, and they want people to add their own information.

This Saturday, 12th September

The venue for the day is Brass Tacks, 300 Brixton Hill SW2

The starting time is 12 midday, for chatting, nibbles and getting
everything together, then, possibly
1pm How it all began, with those who were there
2pm(ish) further reminiscing including later generations
3pm quick break, then How things have changed (presentations / discussion)
4pm What is to be done (possibly in smaller groups)
5pm less formal networking / discussion

(but to be honest, with many people, quite reasonably going to the refugee demo (or other useful stuff), it might all be a bit higgldy piggldy)

And then the evening party from 7 till late at Lost Society, 697 Wandsworth
Road SW8
with stalls from housing struggles, and music from current and former collective members, and others

Hope to see you
ASS