The Need for Just Homes

The London Borough of Newham has seen a dramatic change in population over the last 30 years. With a white population of 39% at the 2001 census it now has the most ethnically diverse population of any borough or city in the UK.

Although the official statistics put the population of the borough at 250,000 when other measures are used such as those registered with doctors there could be as many as a further 70,000 living in the borough. Cellars, garden sheds, garages and breeze block rooms with no windows are being used to house people illegally. Some landlords are exploiting tenants with overcrowding, lack of privacy, exploitative rents, dangerous premises, health risks and no security of tenure. One third of households in the borough have an income of less than £15,000 a year. Buying or renting for many remains unaffordable even with the recent downturn in house prices and rents.  The local authority is doing its best with a number of major regeneration schemes that aim to include affordable housing and the setting up of a new housing association to buy properties for social housing but with around 30,000 on the waiting list, the highest in the whole country, it is struggling. Many people cannot even get on that list because they are not entitled to any benefits.  These are people from non-EU countries; some are women who are abandoned here with babies or small children by husbands or partners who no longer want them.  Others are asylum seekers who cannot prove their case or have had their case mismanaged.  With no benefits and limited entitlement to work there is no money to pay rent or bills.