Housing Developer Threatens London Council with Legal Action – Calls Democracy ‘Irrational’

The Australian multi-national corporation Lendlease, has threatened Haringey Council in north London with legal action if it cancels the contract for gentrification of its housing stock. The Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV), was agreed by the council under the leadership of Claire Kober, who has now resigned as a councillor to take up a post as the new director of housing at Pinnacle Group, another housing developer.

Many of the Labour councillors who supported Kober and HDV have now stood down, and their replacements were all anti-HDV, along with most of the council’s social housing tenants. Indeed it was this very issue that forced Kober and her supporters out, just prior to this year’s local government elections in May.

HDV is a form of social cleansing, where social housing (where rents are around 30% of the market rate) is replaced with homes for sale or at full market rate rent. Lendlease have agreed to provide 1000 homes for ‘affordable rent’ (around 80% of the market rate), which amounts only about 10% of the homes in the new development.

We have previously reported about the HDV fiasco on this blog, here, here and here. HDV was challenged in the High Court, where Lendlease won, but is currently awaiting an appeal judgement.

The Chief Executive Officer of Lendlease, Dan Labbard, has written two letters this month to the new leader of the council, and the Chief Executive, one on 4 July (see here) and the latest on 9 July (see here). In the 9 July letter he says that ‘we will have no choice but to seek to protect Lendlease’s interests given very significant investment over the last two and half years.’ This includes no doubt the cost of defending the High Court Judicial Review and the appeal, but this is all part of the democratic processes in the UK, which the company appears to hold in complete contempt.

Labbard goes on to say:

‘It is important that in reviewing the HDV at the Cabinet on 17 July, the Council does not take any steps which infringes or damages Lendlease’s rights. Most obiviously, it is not open to the Council in such circumstances to attempt to abandon the procurement, in which Lendlease was selected and then confirmed as the successful bidder.’

He says the council:

‘Must not take any decision which would be irrational, in particular, in the context of the borough’s urgent need for housing – which requires very significant investment and capability.’

So there you have it. Lendlease is threatening Haringey Council with a lawsuit to recover costs and compensation if HDV is cancelled, and their reasoning is that the council would be acting irrationally if they did. There is no doubt that Haringey does have an urgent need for new housing, as does much of London, but HDV is not what is needed by any rational measure.

HDV would demolish thousands of social housing units and replace them with high cost accommodation, either for sale or rent. Most of the existing tenants would not be able to afford even the 10% of homes that would be available for ‘affordable’ rent, let alone the other 90%. HDV is nothing to do with addressing the borough’s urgent housing needs, but all about Lendlease making a big fat profit by throwing less wealthy people out of their homes and moving wealthier people into the new developments.

It is crystal clear that the previous Labour leadership of the council were kicked out of office (replaced by anti-HDV councilors), because the scheme is so unpopular locally, so why should this development proceed? Where is the rationally in that?

Similar developments are planned or happening in other parts of London, where they are unpopular too, precisely because they do not address the housing crisis in London in any kind of satisfactory way. The will of the people, to borrow a phrase from the head banging Brexiters, is being held in contempt here, so I do hope the new council tells Lendlease where to go.

There is a lobby of the council Cabinet meeting on Tuesday 17 July at 5.30pm at Haringey Civic Centre. Those who wish to observe the meeting will be able to do so from the council chamber balcony, but people should do so respectfully.

More information at StopHDV

Greens Discuss Cooperating with Labour at London Council Election

My local Green Party, Haringey in north London, are to discuss accommodating some Labour Party candidates at next year’s full London council elections. In London, all councillors are elected every four years, so three candidates are all elected to serve as councillors in all wards at the same time. In Haringey this amounts to 57 councillors in total.

In Haringey the big issue at the moment is the Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV) which aims to sell off residential council properties and land for the redevelopment of housing in the borough. This £2 billion deal has caused much controversy as the suspicion is that this is an exercise in gentrification, as has happened in other parts of London with similar schemes, where social housing forms only a small part of the new development.

The local ruling Labour Party is split on the issue, with Momentum and fellow travellers trying to replace Labour councillors who support the development, including the leader of the council Claire Kober. Local Greens are set to discuss the motion below at their next meeting on 13 November.

Whilst I do not agree with the specifics of the motion, as a former election agent of eight years standing and for the last two full council elections, I do think we should build into our candidate selection some flexibility. We might not stand a full state of candidates, as we have for the last two full council elections, to help Momentum to change the balance of the Labour council against HDV. We may well not know until late in the day who Labour has selected, but I think we should keep the option open.

I also think Labour (or the faction of it against HDV) should reciprocate in some way.     

Here is the slightly redacted motion:

Pre-amble/explanation

Haringey Green Party believes that the changing local political situation and the substantial divisions within the local Labour Party require a flexible response for our electoral strategy for the 2018 council elections which should be reflected in the Action Plan to be discussed at the AGM in January. In particular:-

a) a deep rift is emerging between Labour councillors who support their leadership on the HDV and those opposed

b) Labour councillors are similarly divided on estate demolitions, Tottenham ‘regeneration’ plans and social care cuts, with some following the Kober/Strickland leadership on these issues and others opposed

c) where ward Labour parties disagree with their sitting councillors, some of these councillors may be de-selected as candidates for 2018 and replaced by individuals more opposed to the HDV and to estate demolitions

If we want Greens elected we should target those councillors who are close to the increasingly unpopular Kober leadership and not those already opposed to the HDV with whom we can work on that issue and possibly on other issues. Our target ward of XXXX already has XXXX as a prominent opponent of the HDV and of cuts in social care. 

The unpopularity of XXXX and XXXX make it particularly worthwhile to challenge them in XXXX.

Proposals

Haringey Green Party should adopt the following objectives (to be voted on one by one):-

1) We should avoid taking votes from sitting Labour councillors who have consistently stood out against the Labour leadership and opposed the HDV. We should invite voters to consider the views of all candidates about the HDV and vote for Greens and any other candidates who can be relied on to defend social housing and oppose estate demolitions which are against the wishes of residents.

2) This would mean that whilst we would continue campaigning in XXXX as our first target ward, if XXXX is standing again there we would re-deploy one of our already selected candidates to another ward, so that those voters convinced by our arguments against the HDV and against social care cuts will find no contradiction in supporting 2 Green candidates alongside XXXX; that is, they will not have to choose between Green candidates and a Labour candidate with specific views that are similar to our own on some key issues.

3) We will consider challenging all sitting councillors, whichever party they represent, to a series of Green demands (to be discussed at the AGM but e.g. no more land transferred to the HDV if it goes ahead, no estate demolitions, no loss or privatisation of parks, maximum permitted ‘precept’ for social care, renewed resources and attention to the Greenest Borough strategy, etc); and tell them that if any councillor who is standing for re-election supports all of our demands, we will reduce the full ‘slate’ of 3 Green candidates in his/her ward by one.

4) We should adopt XXXX as our second target ward, since XXXX and XXXX are both sitting councillors there.

5) We should retain some flexibility in our electoral strategy for the 2018 council elections in case any sitting councillors are de-selected and are replaced by candidates with different views. We should take note of information which is likely to become available through Labour Party contacts in December, to try to find out the selection decisions of other parties far enough in advance to tailor our own strategy to their candidate selection for particular wards.

6) We should earnestly and urgently seek out Green candidates for wards across the borough who are able and willing to speak at hustings and engage in no-cost social media and press work, and who really want to become councillors, and provide them with adequate training and briefing on local issues in order to take forward our 2018 campaign.

7) We should agree at the AGM a set of 4 to 6 main demands which will be our platform for the 2018 elections and which will be reflected in point 3 if adopted.

Legal Challenge to Social Cleansing in London – Stop Haringey Development Vehicle

Written by Gordon Peters

I am a former social services director in London and now retired from twenty subsequent years as a consultant in health and social development with particular experience in policies aimed at reducing poverty and inequalities, acting for governments in Europe and Asia and with UK donors.

As an active member of Haringey Over 50s forum in north London and chair of the Older Peoples Reference Group in the borough I took up the challenge posed to living conditions of vulnerable people, particularly frail elders, by the establishment of the Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV), the intended new Limited Liability Partnership owned 50% by the Council and 50% by Lendlease, the Australian multi-national corporation.

Many individuals and groups have joined in this campaign, now called StopHDV which is supported by both the constituency Labour Parties and the two MPs, despite which the current leadership insists it must go ahead. It is also supported by the LibDems and Green Parties, and by the tenants and residents federation, and trades unions including my own, Haringey Unite Community branch, and many affiliated campaigns and individuals.

The Judicial Review on the Haringey Development Vehicle takes place in the High Court on The Strand in London on 25 and 26 October, and I hope some supporters can make it to that, either outside from 9 to10 am or in the public seating from 10 am.

The challenge is to Haringey Council setting up a supposedly 50/50 partnership with the Australian multi-national corporation, Lendlease, to take over land and property belonging to the Council, involving demolition and regeneration of estates as well as business premises and private houses in 'red-lined areas’. If it goes ahead it will be the biggest such transfer of local authority resources to a private entity in UK history. Lendlease have now joined Haringey as a defendant of the HDV in court.

None of this would have been possible without the amazing support from the several hundred people who have contributed through our crowdfunding to raise £25,000. £20,000 of this is required for our community cap on any awards which will be requested of the judge. The solicitors for the case, Leigh Day, and the barristers have put a great deal of work in to it, and as a result I am now asking for another £5,000 to make up the fees and costs accruing.

Please donate at Crowd Justice to help the extra costs.

I hope you will make another donation, small or large, if you possibly can.

I am unhappy with the HDV model and its governance arrangements as chosen by the Council and about the process followed including lack of consultation on this vehicle, loss of democratic control over the homes and other public assets involved, and the Council’s failure to ensure that the HDV will comply in future with obligations such as the Human Rights Act, the Freedom of Information Act and the Public Sector Equality Duty.

In summary the claims are challenging:

1] this being set up as a partnership[LLP] rather than as a company as it is acting for a commercial purpose;

2] the HDV not having been consulted on and the manner of its development up to the July 2017 Cabinet decision;

3] the public sector equality duty of the Equality Act 2010 having been inadequately addressed;

4]the decision to establish the HDV as  constituting a strategic move on behalf of the Council not having been taken to full Council.

Haringey and Lendlease maintain publicly that thousands of homes and jobs will be won for the borough from the HDV investment, and yet none of the risk to the public purse nor viability assessments, nor due diligence carried out, has been shared beyond the few members of the Cabinet.

And the Leader of the Council’s insistence is on continuing despite the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee, across party lines, demanding a halt for further examination, and despite a week of expert witness scrutiny by the Housing and Regeneration Panel, objections by tenants and residents  and deputations by groups, and Call-ins of the decision to proceed.

If the HDV goes ahead the Council will be committed immediately to transfer its entire commercial portfolio to the HDV in return for £45 million investment from Lendlease and its first category of land in Wood Green estate and Wood Green Civic Centre.

It then intends to transfer up to £2 billion worth of property which includes the demolition of Northumberland Park estate, next to the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium, and some surrounding leasehold housing, together home to several thousand people, some of them single pensioners who will be at great risk if moved.

Other areas in the west of the borough are also scheduled for development. Beyond that intentions are outlined in the next categories for Broadwater Farm in Tottenham, and then potentially for any land and property  ‘under-used’ or considered ‘surplus’.

The Council outline a Right of Return and detailed consultation to come on localities affected, but once the HDV is set up and going these will amount to ‘paper promises’ at best, as alternative approaches such as estate refurbishment and local community–backed plans are ruled out.

Moreover Lendlease as the commercial partner in the HDV have been exempted from certain requirements of Council policy so that guarantees within direct Council oversight, including security of tenure, no longer apply.

The legal argument here is a matter of widespread concern at a lack of accountability and democratic process, and indeed relates to a concern for the fundamental rights of people to a home and support in their community.

It has ramifications far beyond Haringey regarding the ways in which social housing and truly affordable housing are being squeezed out by corporate actions in collusion with councils, many of them Labour councils, as the record of Lendlease in Southwark shows all too dramatically. All evidence to date points to a further loss of homes for poorer people and an influx of better off rented and purchased homes in new high densities which deny or destroy existing communities.

The HDV has not been able to demonstrate in any way how its establishment and operation will change things for the better, especially in such an unpredictable economic climate, and the Council putting all its development ‘eggs in the HDV basket’ in such an untested way is being irresponsible with public money. That is why it must be stopped, and the Council think – and listen –again.

More information from StopHDV

Gordon Peters in a member of Haringey Green Party and a Green Left supporter

Famous Victory for People Power over the Privateers – No Social Cleansing in Haringey

The Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV), a £2 billion public/private housing deal between Haringey Council in north London, and construction company Lendlease, is all but dead in the water. Claire Kober the Labour leader of the council, has said that she will not stand for re-election in May’s local government elections. Kober has been the key driver of this property deal, which would have bulldozed thousands of social housing properties, and be replaced with high cost homes for sale or private rental.

Kober has said all existing social housing tenants will be offered homes in the new developments, but similar schemes in other parts of London have promised this, but the homes have failed to materialise. Residents in Haringey have not been prepared to take Kober at her word, and a huge resistance campaign to oppose the deal which was cooked up on a Lendlease owned yacht at the Cannes property development fair in southern France, was formed.

It is highly unlikely that Kober would have still been leader of the Labour Group of councillors after this May’s elections as many of the councillors who supported this deal, and Kober as leader, have been replaced with candidates who oppose HDV. She claims in an apparently open resignation letter, although I’ve been unable to find the full text, to having become ‘disillusioned’ with sexism and bullying, by unidentified people in the Labour party. She has yet to provide any evidence of this though.

If this is true, then of course it should be condemned, but I have to say that it has the look of Kober trying to play the victim in all of this, rather like white racists will often claim that they are discriminated against. I live in Haringey, and have been around local politics for quite a few years now, and I can tell you that Kober is no shrinking violet, who has run the council in an autocratic way. If she has evidence of her being abused then let’s see it.

The mainstream media have tried to make this into a story of a Momentum take-over of the local Labour party. I know that the Labour party has attracted a lot of new members locally, but it has been the policy of HDV that has been unpopular with local people generally. These stories are just ‘red scare’ propaganda. It is totally untrue that this is to do with anything other than the HDV policy itself.

The Labour party NEC, now with a left majority, did suggest some mediation on this issue, between the different factions in Haringey Labour party, but Kober turned this offer down, for as yet unspecified reasons. She has shown no attempt to compromise on this issue, or even listen to anyone who disagrees with her on HDV, preferring to try and railroad it through with the support of only members of her inner sanctum in the Cabinet.

The NEC has been criticised for interfering in local decisions, and I don’t know what the Labour party rules on this are, but I seem to remember Neil Kinnock interfering in local decisions in the 1980s, in Liverpool. Pot and kettle, and all that. 

Kober has support from some MPs and council leaders on the right of the Labour party, which does demonsrate that the Labour party still has some way to go before it is totally transformed into a proper social democratic party. Rumours are circulating that Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, is set to offer Kober a job in charge of housing, London wide.  

The Stop HDV campaign, is supported by the Greens, like me, and Lib Dems locally, as well as resident’s groups and trade unions and many locally in the Labour party who are not Momentum members. Haringey’s two Labour MPs are also against HDV. It hardly sounds like a bunch of Bolsheviks does it?

We are still waiting for a ruling from the Judicial Review, in the High Court, brought and crowdfunded for by local resident Gordon Peters, into the legality of the HDV scheme. What in the end though has stopped this development going ahead is politics. A community campaign that spread into the local Labour party, has forced a change of plan. It is a powerful example of what politics can achieve after all of the despair of recent years; the neo-liberal juggernaut has been brought to a shuddering halt in Haringey.

No formal decision has been taken to end interest in HDV or to try and renegotiate it yet, but there is a meeting next week that will probably take a decision to at least put it on hold. Stop HDV have called a demonstration and lobby outside Wood Green civic centre on the evening of the meeting, 7 February. I don’t think there is enough time, even if there was the will, to get this through now before the elections in May anyway, so I expect the demonstrators will be celebrating.   

Grassroots Coalition Grows Against Social Cleansing in London – Stop Haringey Development Vehicle

Written by Gordon Peters

As previously reported on this blog, Haringey Council in north London is planning to go ahead with a £2 billion redevelopment of its public housing stock, gentrifying neighbourhoods and pricing local people out of living in the area. But a grassroots campaign against Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV) has been building.

The coalition of people, groups and political parties across the borough for social housing and against social cleansing, and now includes leaseholders in the west of the borough who are being compulsorily purchased to make way for the corporate-led demolition and re-development. This coalition includes the local Labour Party, local Green Party, local Lib Dems and tenants and residents associations and community groups, and trades unions.

Haringey council is controlled by the Labour Party. Haringey which has the largest constituency parties of the Labour Party anywhere in England is now a test bed on where politicians stand on the need for decent social housing and against social cleansing. Labour Cabinet members even are, at least in one case I know, starting to dissociate themselves completely from the HDV.

Both of Haringey’s Labour MPs, David Lammy in Tottenham and Catherine West in Hornsey and Wood Green, oppose the development.

Partly because we found out from a Freedom of Information request, that there has been a secret ‘shadow’ inner cabinet process of meetings with Lendlease, the preferred developer, from before the point of them being agreed as preferred bidder for the contract on HDV. This included the member recently appointed to be on the putative HDV Board, Cllr. Elin Weston who is now the lead member for children and families.

I crowd funded £25,000 to pay for legal fees for a Judicial Hearing which will be held in the High Court - Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand - on 25 and 26 October, where there will be a presence outside from 9:30 on 25th.

This could lead to a landmark decision on how Councils, through their Cabinets, make decisions on property deals with big developers altering the whole nature of communities, at the expense of the less well-off and poor, as has been happening across London and mainly by Labour councils. Issues in front of the court include lack of basic democracy, consultation, equalities impact, commercial secrecy and fair process.

There is a march and demonstration in Haringey this Saturday, 23 September, against HDV. Folks from elsewhere in London will be attending too (e.g. Cressingham Gardens, Lambeth in south London, who are campaigning against a similar development in their borough and who have also been in Judicial Review). 

The march starts at Tottenham Green, at 12 noon and onto Ducketts Common (site of the massive defeat of the NF by the community in the late 70s) down Green Lanes - one of the last roads that hasn’t been totally taken over by corporate franchises - and finishes at 2pm at the Manor House tube end of Finsbury Park. Sian Berry, Green Party London Assembly Member, has agreed to speak at demo/end of the march.

There is also a benefit gig with Potent Whisper and others at The Beehive pub in Tottenham from 7pm on Saturday evening. The film Dispossession, The Great Social Housing Swindle is being shown at the Haringey Independent Cinema in West Green this Thursday evening.

Immediately at risk are 1300 homes on Northumberland Park estate, Tottenham, behind them are hundreds and hundreds more on multiple estates, this is people's homes, this is the reality of London in 2017.

A good presence on the demonstration this coming Saturday will be really important to keep up the momentum that is building, especially given what is now happening in the local Labour Party. Support this campaign against this cruel social cleansing operation which is threatening to spread to many other parts of London.

Useful links:

Stop HDV

Green N8

Facebook: The 2 BillionPoundGamble

Gordon Peters is a member of Haringey Green Party and a Green Left supporter

Stop Social Cleansing in London - Stop Haringey Development Vehicle

Protesters against HDV outside Haringey Civic Centre earlier this year

Written by Gordon Peters

I’m an active older resident of Haringey in London who spends a lot of time with individuals and groups supporting vulnerable older people.  I was a Parliamentary candidate in Hornsey & Wood Green for the Green Party in 2015 and I’m very concerned about the housing crisis and lack of decent and affordable homes in the borough.

I’m taking legal action – now including a Judicial Review – in order to stop Haringey Council’s leadership from demolishing several housing estates and selling off its public assets.  At an eventual value of £2bn, it would be the biggest ever sell-off of public assets in local authority history. 

It will affect many of the present Council estate residents who would lose their current homes as well as those who are currently homeless.  The council have refused to give a written guarantee of a right to return on council tenancies, and only a small percentage of the new accommodation will be on social rents. Whilst some tenants might be rehoused locally, most will lose their current residential rights as tenants.  The replacement homes will have a lack of genuinely affordable housing and there is no guarantee at all of social housing.  

“Regeneration” is about bringing wealthier people into Haringey and many poorer people having to move out – as has happened in Southwark with Lendlease, Haringey’s chosen partner.  In addition, there is a very high risk to all of Haringey residents by putting so much of the public purse in the hands of a new limited company with no guaranteed income and no risk assessment shared.

Many of Haringey’s Labour councillors also share our concerns but the leadership have refused to accept their own Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s reports calling for a halt to the HDV.  We have also called in the District Auditor who is conducting a public interest investigation.  

There has been a serious lack of consultation, of democratic process, of transparency and accountability, as well as duties of equal treatment which must now be addressed in a court of law.   A 'Funday' survey asking if tenants want 'improved housing' would be expected to return an almost 100% 'yes' vote!  But there has been no genuine consultation on the HDV and only a limited amount on the demolition of Northumberland Park.

We have issued a ‘Pre-Action’ letter to the Leader of Haringey Council and in subsequent correspondence she has dismissed our concerns.  Over £8,000 has been raised already for these legal costs so far but we now have to go to the High Court where our barristers will make the case for stopping the HDV and reconsidering.  We therefore need £4000 soon and we may well need more after that.

If we win – and our lawyers Leigh Day feel we have a very strong case - , a judge can stop this vehicle in its tracks and make Haringey reconsider its options – including putting its case before the electorate in the Council elections of 2018.  The wide coalition opposing the HDV includes members and councillors of the Labour Party and the Lib-Dems as well as the Green Party.  It also includes many non-affiliated individuals and groups including the Federation of Haringey Residents’ Associations and Unite Community Branch.

Please donate to the legal challenge fees at Crowd Justice

For further information go to StopHDV.com

Gordon Peters is a retired Social Services Director and currently chair of Haringey Older Peoples Reference Group. He is a member of Haringey Green Party and a Green Left supporter.

HDV – The Fight Goes On – Stop Social Cleansing in London

Written by Gordon Peters

There does seem to be a tide about to turn on the scandal of housing provision, especially in London, and its unaffordability for so many. The Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV) in north London, has been put on hold for now. The StopHDV campaign is playing an important role in this.

Across Haringey a broad coalition of opposition to the Haringey Development Vehicle grew from grass roots in the course of the year from January 2017 to the present, motivated by the discovery that a so-called procurement process begun by the Cabinet two years earlier was intent on transferring whole estates. All the Council owned business premises, and potentially all of the physical assets of the local authority are to be transferred to a private partnership with a preferred bidder. 

This turned out to be Lendlease, the Australian-based multi-national, which has been active in Southwark in vastly reducing social housing in favour of new high rent and for sale properties, unaffordable to local residents. Many of whom have had to move out, some far away. That is the evidence behind the terms of gentrification and social cleansing.

Much of this has been documented by the 35% campaign, and the rights of local residents of the Aylesbury Estate are still being fought out in the High Court. In Lambeth too, the intended demolition of Cressingham Gardens, a very well designed mixed community of householders, was taken to Judicial Review, and their fight has also joined in support of the StopHDV campaign. 

Across London something is definitely stirring in resistance to the wholesale takeover of land and housing, and enforced displacement of poorer households, by corporate developers in league with Council leaderships, mostly Labour. Recognition of this at the 2017 Labour Party conference by leader Jeremy Corbyn, and his call for ballots on estates and the rights of local people to determine what they want, refurbishment or redevelopment, and on what scale, is a vital step.

As a result of the pressure from StopHDV - in which Labour activists, LibDems, Greens, tenants and residents federation, leaseholders association, community groups, Unite the Union community branch and other trades unions in Haringey, home owners and some small businesses, have all been involved. 

The fact that a Judicial Review was initiated from the July 2017 Cabinet decision to set up the HDV, despite the local Labour Party's opposition, and that of the two Labour Haringey MPs, it has been halted and while it remained ultra vires. The Council leadership of Claire Kober found their vehicle was being de-railed. She has resigned amid a realisation that there was no longer the time or support to start it up before the May elections. And most candidate councillors will be against it. But it has yet to be finished off.

The first outcome of the Judicial Review did not find in favour of StopHDV, but we are appealing and there are strong grounds we can win at a higher legal level. We argued that this so-called 50/50 partnership could not rightly be a Limited Liability Partnership but was in fact a company intended for profit primarily, that it had never been properly consulted on, that the equalities impact on vulnerable people was flawed, and that a full Council, not Cabinet, should make decisions of this nature. 

The judge ruled us out on a technicality of being ‘’out of time’’ and agreed with much of the argument where he said a different outcome for HDV going ahead would likely have resulted from proper consultation. And a higher court can rule on this issue of Cabinets transferring assets and making decisions affecting peoples homes and lives without their knowing and full Councils being involved - a law giving power to small executive groups in authorities, called Cabinets, brought in by Blair in the ‘90s.

The combination of real grass roots organisation and pressure and challenging the powers that govern, at our cost, through the legal process has helped create a wider, national awareness that speculative, corporate-led demolition and uncaring demolition of local communities along with compliant and complicit Council leaderships. 

These deals are often tied up at MPiM in Cannes or symposia in London and elsewhere. StopHDV and other local campaigns, show that none of this is inevitable, and that locally agreed plans for community living can stop these top down, profit driven destructions of places, environments and people.

And then beside this we need people’s plans, rent controls and rental charters, ballots, councils being released from caps on borrowing, end to Right-to-Buy, taxing empty property and speculation, and surely a Land Value Tax.

I am appealing the High Court decision but need to raise more funds to pay legal fees. Please contribute to the costs if you can to this very important case. To donate visit Crowdjustice here.

Gordon Peters is a Haringey resident.

London Elections Interview - Jarelle Francis, Green Party

London Elections Interview - Jarelle Francis, Haringey Green Party Target Candidate for St Ann’s Ward, talks to Mike Shaughnessy

Tell me a bit about your background, how long have you lived in Haringey and what is your day job, for example?

“I was born in Tottenham and lived in Haringey for most of my life. I freelance working in Art Curation and I am working on a proposal to present to the council after elections for a schools art competition. I worked on a similar one last year in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and it really helped to engage the young people there."

How long have you been a Green Party member, and what first attracted you to the party?

"I joined after the 2015 general election, I always had the intention of joining the Green Party but never got around to it. After the Tories won a surprise majority it accelerated my decision. I joined to fight against austerity and poverty, for social justice, for proportional representation and ultimately against neo-liberal policies which have a detrimental affect on our lives and the planet.”

We are starting to see some African/Caribbean candidates emerge, in London at least, as Green Party candidates, why do you think it has taken so long for this to happen?

“I think traditionally the Labour party was the party for Black and ethnic minority people, but this has changed over the years.

Under Blair/Brown Labour became a very closely aligned with Conservative policy and we are now seeing the fruits as Labour councils in London implement some of the most horrendous social cleansing. In my view the Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV) is an example of that.

People now understand that the Greens are a party for social justice, a party who champions being inclusive and also let's not forget that working class black people are more likely to live in areas of high pollution which affects health. So tackling that has come more to the forefront.”

Violent crime in London is in the news at the moment, what should be done to reduce this?

“I am running this campaign with a clear message that we will reverse the cuts to and invest in youth services again.

There is no doubt that austerity is the main cause of these problems. The Conservative government has taken away EMA, tripled university fees, thus taking away further education as an achievable aspiration for the young working class. They have just taken away free school meals for the poorest pupils whilst we have 4.1 million children in poverty 

Creative subjects like Art, Music, Drama have been cut in schools and the Labour Council have gone too far in cutting youth centres whilst spending money on ridiculous gimmicks like Chicken Town, or wasting money on new logos or most disgracefully spending money in court to fight for the HDV. This is all whilst our young people suffer, it is vitally important that we get on the council so we can challenge the way they spend.”

What is your view of the Windrush scandal?

"One of the things I try to tell voters is to look at policy over personalities if possible. The Conservative party policy was to create a hostile environment for all immigrants.

The immigration act of 2014 successfully did that with only 16 MP's (which included Caroline Lucas) voting against. So Labour are not completely exonerated from this either. Especially when under Ed Milliband they had the "control immigration" mug.

So why now we have all these crocodile tears and faux apologies when their policies have been successful I will never know!

Theresa May implemented these racist policies and should no longer be the Prime Minister.

When you pander to the far right and blame immigration for our countries ills, this is the fruit you bear from those seeds.

This also does not bode well for the 3 million EU citizens living here after Brexit, which is again being facilitated by both Labour and Conservatives.

The Green Party has always stuck up for migrants, free movement of people and it is one of the reasons I joined them. If you want to vote for a party who has always projected a positive image of immigration support us.

We are the sixth largest economy in the world because of immigration, not inspite of it and it's about time we started to appreciate migrants! We have a wonderfully diverse community in St. Ann’s and will continue to stick up for us all if I am elected or not."

You are standing as one of the Green Party’s target candidates in St Ann’s ward, Haringey. What are the issues you are campaigning on?

“We need more council housing, not the "affordable" definition adopted by Boris Johnson and not changed by Sadiq Khan.

StART in St. Ann's a community land trust which is showing us a model which would can work and would be great for the St. Ann’s community.

Air pollution in and around the ward are at high levels and  so we need to think about closing school roads off, which in turn means we need to crate safe walking and cycling routes for all.

Also the cleanliness of the streets has come up a lot, so we need to make sure that Veoila are doing their jobs properly.”

How do you rate your chances of getting elected in this year’s local elections?

"We have a great chance of getting our first councillors in Haringey. Speaking to people on the doorstep they really understand how bad having a Labour council without anyone to hold them to account has been. But we need to make sure that you turn up on Thursday and that Labour voters split their vote so that we get a Green representation on the council."

If you are successful in getting elected to Haringey Council, what will be your priorities in terms of trying to make a difference?

"I will be pushing to immediately reverse the cuts to and invest in youth centres again. Also reverse the cuts to social care services, fighting to keep places like Osborne Grove open.

I would also make sure the council understand how bad the air pollution is on Green Lanes, St. Ann's Road, West Green Road, Seven Sisters Road amongst other places and would mean us implementing new safe cycle lanes, cutting off roads to schools on the school run, and improving local transport.

Making sure HDV does not go through and supporting refurbishment over regeneration which generally means demolition. Supporting projects like StART which has a clear strategy of providing truly affordable housing for local people.

We won't be running the council, but we will be able to hold Labour to account and I hope Labour would adopt some of our positive progressive policies.

But we can only do all this with YOUR VOTES, it is so close, please give us an opportunity to be your voice on the council and vote for us on Thursday May 3rd!"

The other two target Green Party candidates for St. Ann’s Ward are Anne Clark and Lee Jerome

More at https://haringey.greenparty.org.uk/