The financial press reported over the weekend that private equity investor and tax exile Guy Hands is contemplating a £2.5bn bid for Quintain in a move to get into the privately rented sector.
Quintain's owner, Lone Star, is said to want to sell by early next month and other bids are expected. Hands' acquisition would be through his Terra Firma (registered in Guernsey) property arm Annington formed in 1996 to buy up 57,000 Ministry of Defence Homes.
Of interest to Quintain's Tipi privare rental clients is that recently the National Audit Office (NAO) LINK criticised the deal stating that the MOD had lost out on billions of pounds through the sale and will face further costs through substantial rent increases imposed by Hands' company when a rent freeze ends in 2021.
Nearer to home Hands' company Terra Firma was involved in evicting social tenants from Sweets Way, West Hendon. LINKLINK
Hands made a big loss on EMI LINK and his Four Seasons care homes LINK is in difficulty.
Brent Council is now faced with establishing new partnerships with new owners of both Quintain and Wembley Stadium. It has a lot of eggs in one Wembley basket. They will certainly have to be sharp to keep up with Guy Hands and Shahid Kan!
Sweets Way campaigners are calling for support at Willesden Magistrates Court on Wednesday morning. They have put up active resistance to Barnet Council's policy of social cleansing.
Brent activists joined those from Barnet at a solidarity demonstration outside Willesden Magistrates Court.
People from the Sweets Way Resists campaign were appearing before magistrates charged with obstructing High Court enforcement officers when they were evicting tenants from Sweets Way, in what campaigners see as enforcing social cleansing.
The accused were given a conditional charge, which means no prison sentence or fines, but they may have court costs awarded against them.
JOIN US TO STAND UP AGAINST SOCIAL CLEANSING AND THE CRIMINALISATION OF PEACEFUL PROTEST!
On 23 and 24 of September, the Sweets Way estate was evicted by dozens
of High Court bailiffs and 7 vans of London Met police. Nearly a hundred
occupiers of dozens of homes were turfed out, as was Mostafa, the last
original resident of the estate. Supporters peacefully attempted to stop
Mostafa's eviction, many of whom were arrested. Fifteen now face
criminal charges for obstructing High Court Enforcement Officers.
Their trial is scheduled to take place over three days, from 10am on
Wednesday, December 16, through Friday, December 18. Supporters are
encouraged to attend the hearings each day, but we are calling a
solidarity rally outside Willesdon Magistrates Court for 1pm on Friday,
December 18 to take a stand with those who were arrested for standing up
to social cleansing.
Readers will remember that there was a broad-based campaign opposing the Barratt Home development on the banks of the Welsh Harp Reservoir at West Hendon. Mainly low-rise social housing was to be replaced by luxury private tower blocks close to a nature reserve and SSSI. LINK
Unfortunately the campaign did not succeed and Barnet Council went ahead with the scheme. West Hendon Estate residents through their Our West Hendon campaign are fighting what they see as social cleansing of a community and working with Sweets Way residents to challenge Barnet Council Their passion can be seen in this video taken at a Barnet Council Meeting on July 28th when they presented their petitions:
Walking the Kingsbury side of the Welsh Harp on Sunday it became clear what an intrusive eyesore these blocks will be. Sold on the basis of the wonderful green view of the Kingsbury bank that the new residents will see, on our side we will see tower blocks the tallest of which is 24 storeys.
The Minutes of the last Joint Welsh Harp Consultative Committee highlight some of the issues that are emerging during the building works for resdients and for the Nature Reserve.
Looking across from the Kingsbury side to West Hendon, the nature reserve is on the stretch of water in between
Extract from Minutes:
It It was noted that the outcome of the
public enquiry regarding the Compulsory Purchase of the West Hendon Estate was
due shortly and further information would be circulated to all members with the
minutes of the current meeting.
·
A short written update was provided by Terry Garner (Principle Planner, LB
Barnet) regarding the position of SSSI Warden. It was commented that this
information had been shared at the last meeting of the committee. The London
Wildlife Trust (LWT) would be hosting the position and the queries regarding
whether any charge would be made by Barratt London for the provision of office
space remained outstanding. Dianne Murphy (Chair, LWT Barnet) advised that the
job description for the position was due to be signed off imminently; the post
would be advertised in the coming weeks with interviews being held in September
2015. It was anticipated that the Warden would be in position in time for the
next committee meeting in November.
·
Concerns were raised regarding the level of noise from the development and the
impact on the birdlife of the Welsh Harp. The committee agreed with the view
that the planned measures to inhibit noise were ineffective. It was further
noted that the contractors were not complying with the restrictions on working
hours as stipulated in the conditions of the planning permission. Roy Beddard
(Welsh Harp Conservation Group (WHCG)) noted that there had been no discernible
impact on bird populations as recorded by the monthly monitoring surveys
conducted by the WHCG. It was agreed that the results of these surveys could be
circulated to the committee and the Chair agreed to explore this issue and
provide an update to the committee prior to the next meeting.
·
Clive Cohen (LWT) raised concerns regarding the impact of the development on
water quality and suggested that officers explore funding opportunities to
enable regular monitoring to be conducted. A member highlighted that the
Environment Agency (EA) did undertake monitoring of water quality. The Chair
agreed to seek comment on this matter from the relevant officers.
·
The committee reviewed the written update from Nathan Smith (Barratt London)
regarding the use of prohibited roads by contractors. Members of the committee
reported that the issue was ongoing. The Chair encouraged members of the
committee to report any incidents. It was noted that it was not always
practical to take down the necessary details to enable accurate reports to be made.
Possible solutions were discussed by the committee including the installation
of cameras by Barratt London and the continued use of banksmen as it was
possible that this acted as a deterrent. It was agreed that the continuation of
this problem would be raised by the Chair with the planning officers in Barnet
and Barratt Homes. Representatives from Barratt Homes would be asked to attend
committee meetings in the future.
·
Councillor Langleben raised the issue of the impact of the Brent Cross
Regeneration works on the Brent River Stream. The Chair undertook to write to
Barnet Planning for an update to be provided at the next meeting.
On Monday, people kept a family from
being evicted and pushed a council to reverse the decision that would have left
them homeless. But we need to keep up the pressure to keep Mostafa and the
family safe
On Sunday night, many of us didn’t go to sleep. Bailiffs were due at 46 Sweets
Way and because we had seen what Mostafa and his family had gone through, and
we had seen them failed over and over again by the various systems that are
meant to protect them, we knew we needed to prepare with them to stay in their
home.
We were prepared to do everything peaceful within our power to stop High Court
bailiffs from entering the home of the last family at Sweets Way and making
them homeless. Some of us planned to take photos and document the experience,
others were prepared to take civil disobedience and face arrest.
But whatever kind of action we spent the night before preparing to do, we
prepared to do it because it was right.
As it turned out, there were enough of us there that sending away the bailiffs
proved to only require a very passive form of resistance: being there! Enough
of us, even, that they didn’t show their faces or even make an attempt to
breach the gauntlet of more than 60 people (including allies from Our West
Hendon, Barnet Housing Action, Haringey Housing Action Group, Barnet Alliance
for Public Services and Black Dissidents) and an extensive array of amateur
barricading.
In fact, we only even found out that the bailiffs had come and gone when we
called Barnet Council’s lawyers. We asked if the bailiffs were still scheduled
to arrive and were told that the two thugs that had been dispatched knew
immediately they were no match for our collective power, and left. (They didn’t
use exactly those words…).
You could feel the sense of collective power in the air – we knew what we had
achieved, and the energy was electric! A group of regular people had sent away
the bailiffs and kept a family in their home! And we knew we would be able to
do it again.
Better yet, as Barnet had been punishing the family over the a small amount of
rent arrears accrued since the Council unexpectedly cut their housing benefit,
they received a message this afternoon informing them that their housing
benefit had been reinstated, retroactive a month ago. This will address their
arrears and allow Barnet to once again own up to their responsibility to house
the family appropriately.
This is a clear victory spurred by our collective action to highlight the
Council’s many failures to Mostafa, and the number of media requests that came
off the back of our action. Once again, Barnet need to find the family
somewhere to go. And it’s up to us to make sure they have a home until the
point where they have an alternative that truly meets their needs.
This will require a lot of work from all of us, preparing to fight off the
bailiff threat whenever it rears its ugly head. High Court bailiffs don’t
normally offer a time or date when they are coming, and are entitled to use
physical force to enter and remove families from a house. Because of this,
Mostafa and the family remain barricaded in and ready for an attack.
We need to be there with them.
We have a strong contingent of occupiers staying around Sweets Way at the
moment, but we need more people who can stay there (or who live very locally)
in the coming days, to ensure an initial line of defence when bailiffs do
return. It would be tragic if all our hard work yesterday was lost because a
few of us slept late one day.
Get in touch if you live within in a few minutes of the estate, or can come
stay over during the coming days. sweetswayresists@gmail.com / 07812 372 298
We are all inspired by what we were able to do on Monday – let’s be sure it
continues to grow!
CALL-OUT: Keep Mostafa’s family in Sweets Way, Monday, August
10, 8am, 46 Sweets Way, N20 0NT (Meet at Sweetstopia, 95 Sweets Way)
Mostafa’s family are the last remaining family on the Sweets Way
estate. They have fought to stay where they are because Barnet Council
have failed to provide alternative accommodation suitable to Mostafa’s
physical health needs, having developed a serious disability while
working as a carer three years ago.
Now they have been told that High Court bailiffs will be coming to
evict the family of six on Monday morning, and we are committed to
helping them stay in their homes until Barnet Council have found a truly
suitable alternative accommodation for them.
In the midst of the eviction process, Barnet cut off the family’s
housing benefit, leading to rent arrears, and are now using this as an
excuse to avoid their duty of care to them. Both because of the
Council’s horrendous treatment of Mostafa and his family, and because
they are the last family standing on the estate, it is critical that we
mobilise to stop this eviction!
There will be roles for people who are comfortable with different
kinds of action on the day. There are always legal risks involved in
stopping evictions, but we aim to make sure that everyone who is present
can play a part, no matter what their level of comfort with different
forms of direct action.
Regardless, we will need as many people as possible if we are to keep
Mostafa in his home. Please arrive at 8am outside the gates of
Sweetstopia (95 Sweets Way) for a 9am start.
DETAILS: Monday, August 10, 8am, 46 Sweets Way, London, N20 0NT (Meet at Sweetstopia, 95 Sweets Way) About these ads
