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| New Era tenants celebrating in 2014 ahead of 2015 rent negotiations © Courtesy: New Era Tenants' Association |
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| Placard at March for Homes in January 2015 © Paul Coleman, London Intelligence 2015 |
Wealthier
tenants could be charged more rent than less affluent ones on an east London housing estate.
Is this a progressive way to keep a tight-knit
working class community together on their estate?
Or, a divisive measure that might cause resentment?
Can only subsidised ‘social rents’ ensure
long-standing tenants can stay long-term?
These questions face the 93 residents of
the New Era Estate who met on Thursday (26
February).
Some residents have lived on the estate
all of their lives.
Dolphin
Living, the charity now owning New Era, are considering plans to means test the pensioners, teaching
assistants, PAs, NHS staff and construction workers who live on the estate in
Hoxton.
Tenants earning around £21,000 a year
might see their rent cut.
But rents might be doubled for tenants
earning £66,000.
‘Astronomical’
New Era tenants successfully fought an
attempt in 2014 by an American property company – Westbrook - to triple rents
and effectively evict them and make them homeless.
Westbrook had bought the New Era in 2012
and wanted to redevelop the estate for profit.
Instead, after the tenants’ vigorous and ultimately successful
high-profile campaign, Westbrook relinquished direct control of New Era.
Dolphin Living bought the 93-flat estate
and promised to negotiate new rents with the tenants.
New Era rents are about half of the
local average rate for private rentals.
The estate is located on the trendy
Hoxton-Shoreditch fringe of the City of London, the financial district with
‘astronomical’ property prices and market rents.
Private one-bedroom flats in Hoxton can fetch
weekly rents of £650, according to the Rightmove property website.
Zone
New Era buildings also need repair and
maintenance following a lack of investment over recent years.
Dolphin Living wants the ‘better off’ to
pay a larger contribution.
John Gooding of Dolphin Living points to
a chart in his office projecting how rent could increase for some tenants as
their weekly incomes rise.
The chart displays ‘current rent’,
‘living costs’, ‘extra disposable income’, and ‘rent’ (new rent).
“We need to identify this zone of
affordability – how much people can reasonably afford to pay,” says John
Gooding of Dolphin Living.
“Clearly, if you’re earning a bigger
salary, yes, you’re going to pay a bigger rent.”
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| New Era Estate tenants Lindsey Garrett (speaking) and Danielle Molinari (standing) © Paul Coleman, London Intelligence 2015 |
Resentful
Residents are said to be ‘broadly open’
to the idea, following their meeting.
“Of course, the problem with this is
that it causes tension,” says Lindsey Garrett, chair of the New Era Tenants’
Association.
“The last thing we really want is the community
to be really destroyed and to be taken to pieces because people will feel
resentful at paying higher rents.”
Fair
“It may set a precedent if it works on
this estate and everybody is happy with it,” says Danielle Molinari, vice-chair
of the New Era Tenants’ Association.
“Why couldn’t it work for other estates?
“It’s only fair that people who are
working class are able to stay in London.”
The charity and residents are said to be
continuing to negotiate.
Endowed
Dolphin Living is the housing arm of
Dolphin Square Foundation, an ‘independent’ charity formed in 2005 after being
endowed with more than £80 million from the Dolphin Square Trust.
The Trust’s endowment to the Foundation
followed the sale of its leasehold interest in Dolphin Square, a residential
estate in Pimlico in Westminster where rich and powerful people live.
Dolphin says it aims to achieve ‘good
returns on capital’ invested in property so it can ‘deliver 1,000 new
affordable rental homes by 2020’.
Disposable
Dolphin says its ‘rents are set at
60-80% of the market value’ and aims ‘to provide homes that will cost our
residents no more than 40% of their disposable income’.
Dolphin advertises 77 ‘intermediate
studio to three bedroom apartments for rent’ in the King’s Cross regeneration
area with weekly rents starting from £177.
Rents for Dolphin’s 39 one to three
bedroom apartments in the One Church Square development in Westminster start
from £190 per week.
All Dolphin’s fully managed Assured
Shorthold Tenancies are for three years.
Inherited
Rents on the New Era Estate, built in
the 1930s by Middlesex property developer Arthur Barsht, were always kept below
‘market rates’.
The average weekly rent for a New Era
flat is reportedly close to £143.
Two-bedroom flats cost £668 a month
before rents rose under Westbrook’s ownership to £796.
Profit
Barsht’s two daughters had inherited the
estate after their father died in 1933.
For over 70 years, New Era offered
subsidised rents to people on average and lower incomes.
But the family sold the estate in 2012
to a Westbrook interest for a ‘substantial profit of £306,865.
The
sale of these subsidised homes for working class Londoners reportedly enabled
shareholders of the family company LBS Holdings Limited to receive a £300,000
dividend in 2013.
And, the shadow of that sale still hangs over 93 working class households.
They say they will not be able to afford to stay in London if rents rise and compel them to leave their New Era homes.
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| © Paul Coleman, London Intelligence 2015 |
© Paul Coleman, London Intelligence, March 2015
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