Lambeth housing activists are organising a protest on Saturday 30 January against the government’s Housing Bill which has been widely criticised as a measure that will worsen homelessness in London, not reduce it.
The Lambeth Housing Activists organisation said the Bill marked “the end of social housing” and of secure lifetime tenancies.
If the Bill becomes law, council tenancies will be for two to five years only and could not be passed on to the children of tenants. Landlords would have access to information about a tenant’s personal income. Households with a joint income of more than £40,000 – equivalent to a couple on the living wage – would have to pay the difference between their “social” rent and the “market rent”. The Lambeth campaigners say that in Waterloo that would amount to an average of £26,000 a year.
The protest march was agreed at the conference Another Lambeth is Possible held in Brixton before Christmas.
The protest march will assemble at noon at the Imperial War Museum (Kennington Rd/Lambeth Rd SE1 6HZ) and proceed to Downing Street for 2pm
