The housing crisis is devastating communities, which face ‘regeneration’ favouring the wealthy. Pete Webster reports on the London Renters Union’s demonstration in Brent

The Brent branch of the London Renters Union held a lively march from Wembley Park to Brent Civic Centre to protest against the sky-high rents in the area, lack of three and four-bedroom homes suitable for families, and the long waiting list for social housing. 

There currently are some 34 thousand families on Brent’s waiting list with many who have been on it for more than ten years. Meanwhile tenants are faced with exorbitant rents as these are jacked up to local market levels that have risen due to the development of swish tower blocks either for sale or rent for those that can afford it. The ‘cheapest’ two-bed flat is available for £2,330pcm. 

The rapid and ongoing development of the Wembley area has been led by the property and management organisation Quintain, which controls 3,390 homes across this small area and is supported by Brent Council. One block contains over 350 units, but only three three-bed flats, effectively excluding families with growing kids. 

Quintain was purchased in 2015 by Texas Lone Star, a private equity fund, for £700 million in 2015. The whole estate is up for sale – a mere snip at the £2.5 billion asking price. 

Many on the demonstrators spoke about their current circumstances, including properties in disrepair and suffering from mould and damp with unresponsive landlords unwilling to mend even basic faults. They also stated that this was just the start of an ongoing campaign to bring about changes at both local and national level. As Samara, a local resident with two children renting a private one-bed flat, said, ‘What choice do we have. They [Brent Council] have said we should move to another area where it is cheaper. But our family and friends are here and the children are going to school. How can we take them away somewhere new? We must continue.’ 

Sadly this is a situation that is replicated across most of London and our cities, as ‘regeneration’ has acted as a means of removing the poor from these areas and destroying communities in its wake. The Renters’ Rights Bill, currently going through the Parliamentary process, aims to abolish Section 21 evictions – where landlords can issue eviction notices without good reason – and some reforms of the private-rented sector. If passed, unamended, most of these will not be implemented until 2026 at the earliest. This is a small step in the right direction, but it won’t solve the housing crisis on its own. 

As the London Renters Union states, ‘While the end of Section 21 is a significant achievement, landlords still have too much power to hike rents and push tenants out. Many renters will continue to face unsafe living conditions, and we are far from securing the rent controls we need to protect our homes and put down roots in our communities.’ 

It’s important to support tenants’ rights groups to keep the pressure on councils and oppose Starmer’s austerity driven war on the poor. And there is an urgent need to link the fight for decent, secure housing with other struggles against austerity. The London Renters Union is organising a central London protest for 14 December that will bring together housing-rights organisations from across the capital.