Throughout my life, naturally, I have seen my beloved town change. However, I have never felt change taking place at such a rapid rate as it has done in the past few years. I am left feeling somewhat overwhelmed and bewildered by it, with conflicting feelings on the issue of gentrification.

Change, in whatever form it may take, is often accompanied by feelings of loss, nostalgia and perhaps even a sense of grief. On the other hand, change may be welcomed and is often necessary, albeit with a reluctance to let go. This project explores these themes within the context of Hastings and St Leonards, by taking on a collaborative approach with long-term residents.

Our home has been described in the press as a ‘gritty alternative’ with a ‘Costa Del Dole vibe’, or somewhere that is being ‘regenerated with an arty crowd’. As a long-term resident, I find the language of some of these Sunday supplements frustrating, not to mention often inaccurate and problematic as local people are often left out of the conversation.

I believe that giving a range of local people a voice and a platform to express their feelings is not only essential, but also the most effective way to show an accurate reflection of collective thoughts and feelings surrounding the issue.

I feel that in the face of transformation, it is imperative to create a local archive to preserve memories and local identities as the town transforms. The combination of words, images and place within this project serve to explore and reflect attitudes and emotions of local people, merging their memories of the past and some of their most beloved spots with their thoughts on rapid gentrification, the future of the town and ultimately their own.

This is an ongoing project and I am always looking for people who have grown up or spent a considerable period of time in Hastings or St Leonards to share their thoughts and memories with me. Please get in touch if you would like to get involved.

Alice Denny

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Local resident/landlord Jamie writes to HIP.

I’ve been reading through your recent commentary of the Hastings housing crisis with a mixture of sadness at some of the personal stories featured, but also of a frustration with the polarising and one-sided nature of the coverage.

Full disclosure: I am a landlord. I was also born and raised in St Leonards, very close to where now is considered the hub of gentrification in the town.

Gentrification is a complex issue. For me it has transformed the local area where I grew up. That has had negatives, local businesses and residents being forced out – but also positives, it’s now a much cleaner, safer neighbourhood, and one that I can be proud of.

I’m also proud to be part of that change and to be investing hard-earned money, employing local peers and helping regenerate housing that is currently not fit for use, to bring back the sparkle that my grandparents told me existed pre-1970s in the town!

I also have great relationships with my tenants – most of whom are local people who would not have been able to rent a home via the traditional route of estate agents due to personal circumstances.

To blame landlords alone for price rises in the area is lazy and polarising, and the portrayal of all landlords as soulless demons feasting on profits is unfair. (See Landlords – Is the term parasitic appropriate? and other recent articles in HIP presented by Hastings Rental Health (HRH)).

Every landlord is a person and has their own story. I agree many are indeed selfish and immoral and greedy, but to generalise in the way I have seen HRH do is quite upsetting!

It’s also worth noting that later in the HIP edition which featured the article above, there was a special section on the really exciting regeneration of parts of the town centre. Who does HRH think helps fund, build, invest and develop projects like this, and make them commercially viable?

Furthermore, I would argue that a lot of commentary coming from voices such as HRH are unfairly using local problems and issues to press their own broader ideological view that housing should not be used for profit. Let’s try and have a more open debate about the specific problems in this town, rather than these much larger ideological disagreements.

Yes, landlords investing in property is part of the supply/ demand picture that drives prices up. And I agree there should be a cap on Airbnbs in the town. But I would argue that by far the biggest driver is the influx of new people into the area. Not their fault, but it feels a bit short-sighted and jarring when these same people: (1) self-righteously proclaim they want to build a fair community; (2) claim that landlords and developers are at fault; while (3) are at the same time seemingly blind to the fact that they are the main reason that demand for housing is so high in the town, and therefore why prices go up. I would argue that is a much more significant driver than a handful of Airbnbs on the seafront, Old Town or Warrior Square (note that most Airbnbs are not in fact in more suburban areas of town with lots of family-friendly homes).

Worth noting that a lot of the cafes, galleries etc that have been supporting HRH’s cause of attacking local landlords and developers are the same people who, as above, have helped price out / push out many local businesses who were here generations ago in places such as London Road. Maybe your next piece could focus on that?

I applaud HIP and HRH for challenging unscrupulous landlords who provide shoddy housing and immoral renting practices, of course. A lot of what happens is not right. So credit where credit is due, someone needs to uncover what’s happening. I would just like to see a bit more of a balanced debate, and less finger-pointing at landlords. Some of us do care about the community too!

CREDIT: Dave Young

A Journalist’s View

Merlin Betts considers the ongoing housing crisis 

Keep ‘em Coming

While I’m not strictly a professional journalist (we’re all volunteers at HIP, most of us without any journalistic qualifications or jobbing experience), I do spend most of my time trying to get a clear view of things. To observe what’s happening and tell people about it. That’s more or less what journalists are supposed to do. 

Now, it’s a little known fact but writers, the news media, the whole information industry, has always been biased. There never was a neutral observer or reporter. That’s nonsense. We’ve only ever had people with opinions, who believe in their own opinions and sometimes (or all the time) present them as facts. So you can’t just call someone’s view ‘ideology’ and then dismiss it as ‘biased’ when it’s inconvenient to you. Everyone is biased. 

Bearing that in mind, HIP wants to hear from all of you out there in the Borough and beyond, regardless of your biases. We have no official editorial policy and we don’t like censorship. It’s anarchy here folks. The worst that’ll happen is that the editor will reply to you.

Grown Out of Proportion

So… I’m going to put my cards on the table: I don’t think housing should ever be used for profit. Not because Marx or someone told me to think that, but because it’s a damaging social and economic policy to allow profiteering from housing stock. Look at the housing crisis unfolding across Britain, not just in wealthier and developing areas where the prices go up – apparently Hastings is now one of these – but in less marketable areas where whole communities are abandoned for not being profitable enough (see Stoke-on-Trent et al).

There are a lot of factors that contribute to the housing crisis, I’ll admit, but number one is surely the market driving up values by drawing in more eager purchasers, and fuelling what people seem to believe is unlimited economic growth. In other words, it’s the belief that there’s always more profit to be made that’s unbalancing supply and demand, and ruining so many lives.  

The problem with the property market is less landlording itself – making money from a building you own – and more the details of how that money is made, and what it’s spent on. Jamie (above) mentions that in HIP issue 208 (which you can find on our website) we printed an article by Hastings Rental Health (HRH) Landlords – Is the term parasitic appropriate? By contrast, in the same issue, we had the Observer Building (OB) souvenir supplement, which detailed the regeneration of the OB exclusively through community organisations – landlords – and as a community asset. 

Jamie asks, “Who does HRH think helps fund, build, invest and develop projects like this, and make them commercially viable?” The answer is that it’s not private landlords donating to a pot; it’s a selection of community-led companies specifically set up for the job, clearly stated in the supplement.

The article and the supplement show the difference between a selfish landlord, extracting money from people looking for a home (and a business), and a community landlord that reinvests its profits in shared endeavours, in people, in the community. 

No Utopia For Now

I’d like to see a world where no-one is charged rent for their home, but that’ll take a long time to achieve. In the meantime, there are many decent in-between options: community organisations as landlords; local councils as landlords (and Hastings is starting down that road again); co-operatives buying properties and sharing costs among their members. It does not need to be a for-profit company or individual extracting wealth from people who just want a roof over their heads. A wealth extractor is just a kind of parasite, and we don’t want any of them. 

So where do we go with all this? Is it true “that by far the biggest driver [of price rises] is the influx of new people into the area”? Do we need to stop that, and if we do, how? Do we need to make the town less attractive – more insular? Should we redesign it like it was in the 1960s, before the tourism trade really started to gutter out in favour of holidays abroad? In any era of town history, tourism provides jobs but it also takes houses away from local people, or at least pushes up their prices. How about, rather than becoming insular, we make Hastings independent, inclusive and self-sufficient? But that’s another article, for another time. 

Keep the discussion going with Hastings Independent Press email
community@hastings independentpress.co.uk

Expanding on the big themes that have arisen from this programme, the project is now opening up for wider participation. All those who are interested in the future of Hastings are invited to three upcoming online events in January and February: Hastings Town Centre – past, present, future? 19th January; Gentrification: What part will you play? 26th January, hosted by Changing Hastings; Sustainable Hastings – Planting the seeds for a better future together, 23rd February.

The pandemic has highlighted the need for communities to work together as well as the importance of collaboration between the various agencies involved. This led to the setting up of the Hastings Community Hub, a loose coalition of disparate organisations from Hastings Food Bank to the NHS. It was this spirit of partnership that inspired the successful National Lottery bid to fund Hastings Emerging Futures to galvanise and coordinate the already existing grassroots organisations working towards a better future for Hastings. 

The bid was led by the charity Leisure & Learning (Hastings) in partnership with Heart of Hastings Community Land Trust, the Common Treasury of Adaptable Ideas, HEART, Isolation Station Hastings, Jericho Road Solutions and White Rock Neighbourhood Ventures.

So what’s in store for the first event on 19th January: Hastings Town Centre – past, present, future? The event will introduce new and visionary projects that are planned for the town and will encourage you to have your say on what matters to you. To make sure the event is not only a productive experience but also an entertaining one, John Knowles, local author/actor/producer/personality will MC for the night, guiding discussions with guests representing independent and creative businesses, visionary projects, planning and local authorities, as well as local historian, Stephen Peake – each with a different perspective on the town, and loads of ideas for its future. 

Audience participation will, of course, be encouraged at all the events, digging into what Hastings means to the community and and how it sees Hastings’ future: how it will benefit the people who live here and those who visit; how we can repurpose tired, derelict, and neglected spaces for the good of our communities; how we can influence the way our town looks and feels; and most importantly, how to make the ideas a reality.

• To book a place for any of the three events, so to www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/hastings-emerging-futures-project-32183046317 

• For more information on the project, read the next edition of Hastings Independent, out on 19th January.

By Poppy Prescott

Last Thursday evening  (21st November), 130 local townspeople met at the Hastings & St Leonards Angling Club to hear presentations, research, talks, music and debate on the theme of Changing Hastings. It was organised by six volunteers who promoted an open-ended discussion on issues of gentrification and regeneration, and their effects on local housing.

PIC: Alice Denny

The meeting began with two shows of hands: one revealing those who were born and bred in Hastings; the other, those who have moved here in the last five years. The high proportion of the latter indicated that some of the more recent locals feel a responsibility to be a part of the discussion, and it set the tone for a night of working together.

This was followed by a video by Andrew Davies, which articulated the opinions of locals on housing and the financial implications of Hastings becoming a more popular place to live. Solutions were sought to the ‘Catch-22’ of wanting to welcome newcomers who buy property but also to maintain affordable housing with reasonable wages. One speaker in the video said: “You hear a lot of Londoners say ‘it’s so affordable down here’, well, it’s affordable for them.”

Ideas of banning second homes and Airbnbs were debated amidst painted signs around the room referring to ‘Property as Commodity’.

Troubadour Sam Margerison of Buddha Triangle performed Nine Pound Pints – a song detailing his experience of gentrification in the town as he watches pubs close down and the price of pints go up. 

Host Rachel Spinetti set down some ground rules to be followed: everyone must focus on strengths and solutions, listen to each other and respect each other. 

Organiser Jess Steele then spoke briefly about gentrification and the importance of putting property into community ownership and capping rents. She said she had put this into practice with flats in Rock House, Cambridge Road and is planning to do the same at the Observer Building.

She also touched upon the likelihood that, as “positivity triggers more change”, community action in Hastings is likely to be a characteristic that is attractive to people thinking of moving down. 

Research on gentrification

‘Gentrification’ refers to changes to run-down neighbourhoods through the movement in of more affluent residents (Coastal Action)Chris Connelly and James Prentice, of the research organisation Coastal Action, presented their findings on increasing property prices and decreasing wages. 

They reported that most people moving to Hastings are coming from London, Surrey and Kent. This movement is partly due to people being priced out of their own neighbourhoods, where similar changes are happening. They asserted that this movement to Hastings has led to an increase of members in the local art scene and raised the town’s average of people with A*-C grades in Hastings. 

According to Coastal Action, average property prices in St Leonards had shown “a sharp increase” between 2010 and 2018. Over these eight years flats have increased by an average of £87,000, terraced housing by an average of £150,000. As wages in Hastings have decreased during that time, there’s little affordable housing for those on a low income, and it is increasingly hard to buy property. 

Organiser Sam Kinch said: “I came back to Hastings and things had changed, but a little too much…I thought I’d come back to my home town and work to buy a house, but the wage to house prices were stark.”

Kinch discussed a “global toolkit” including some of the methods other places have used to combat similar issues.

An Acorn representative spoke about the work the “radical community union” do in their fight against bad landlords, and mentioned the possibility of an Acorn Hastings branch. 

Discussion

Participants were split into five discussion areas: price rises, second homes/Airbnb, private rented, who owns Hastings? and a ‘wildcard’, with three potential approaches to each of these issues: what the council and/or government could do, what campaigns locals could lead, and what practical solutions could be implemented. 

Groups crowded over tables, writing on paper tablecloths while in animated discussion. The penned solutions were then passed around the tables for others to see. 

Strong feelings were vented in favour of certain potential policies: greater regulation of Airbnb, a community buy-back scheme, localised rent-capping and the prosecution of rogue landlords. Local campaigns to recognise and encourage decent landlords, invest collectively in housing, and stop landlords’ discrimination against tenants on benefits, were called for. 

Among other suggested practical solutions were the establishment of a social enterprise estate agency, advice and support for tenants up against Section 21 evictions, and a publicly or community funded guarantor service.

The general attitude was positive. Many people were excited by the thought of repeating the format of the event for other local issues and furthering this one.

Reggae band Mighty Sounds entertained while the topical conversations continued on throughout the evening.