Arrests over Social Housing Sell-off
BEN BRUGES
Two members of Hastings Housing Rebellion have been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass following the group’s occupation of a house in Battle.
After the death of a great aunt, Cheryl Smart applied to the owners, Southern Housing, to move into her three-bed family home in Wellington Gardens.
Cheryl has been in temporary accommodation for the past two-and-a-half years, with her two children – one with special needs. “It’s so mentally draining living in temporary housing with two young children, and it would be life-changing to be able to keep this home in our family and raise my children in the area I grew up.”
Cheryl said she was “shocked” to learn that the house was to be sold by auction rather than being rented again. Housing Rebellion attended an open viewing and occupied the house, in a ‘peaceful and proportionate’ protest.
The Wellington Gardens estate was built by the council in 1922 as part of the post war ‘Homes for Heroes’ initiative. In 1998, Rother Council handed it to a housing association with a covenant stipulating the properties could not be sold without the permission of the Secretary of State. Protesters are calling on the council to enforce this covenant and stop the sale.
One of the two arrested, Grace Lally of Housing Rebellion, has now been released under investigation. She says: “We know there are thousands of people living in temporary accommodation or who are in overcrowded flats, desperate for a family home like this, and we’re not prepared to stand by and let Southern Housing sell our social housing from under our feet.”
Through a series of mergers, Southern Housing Group now owns all the property which was previously Hastings and Rother Council’s housing stock.
Southern Housing told HIP: ‘This particular home is currently empty and, following a detailed assessment, we found it would require a very high level of investment to meet current and future safety and sustainability standards. We routinely review our homes and identify a very small number that no longer meet the standards. Selling these homes allows us to reinvest in improving and maintaining thousands of others, including homes in this area.”
Housing Rebellion has set up a petition calling on the housing group to stop selling off social housing.
For more information and petition go to: change.org/p/southern-housing-stop-selling-off-our-social-housing.
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