Haringey social tenants fight demolition plans

Members of TAG (Temporary Accommodation Group) Love Lane are campaigning for a right to vote on the future of their estate, which could be knocked down as part of a major regeneration plan.

They are also lobbying for guarantees that affordable homes for social rent will be made available to all tenants on the Love Lane Estate.

Members of the group struck out on their own after claiming their estate’s council-run residents’ association was not meeting their needs – and sometimes even suppressing their views.

They claimed Love Lane Residents’ Association made slow progress when dealing with their requests.

Tash Bonner, chair of TAG Love Lane, said: “It seemed a bit intentionally created to tick certain boxes on behalf of the council.

“From my experience, it is just things that could have been done in the moment were taking too long to do.

“We were supposed to have a petition – but the whole process took six to seven months. It took way too long.

“It was frustrating on our part. Take into account it was a council-run initiative.”

Another member, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “Move-on managers (from the council) did not turn up to meetings.

“At one meeting, we were expecting to talk about housing, but most of the talk was about anti-social behaviour. We were suppressed.”

He said new councillors – elected in May on a platform of opposition to another major regeneration scheme, the Haringey Development Vehicle – had been more sympathetic to their complaints.

But he added: “There are officers in there left over from the (former council leader) Claire Kober regime. Kober has gone, but her officers are still there.”

All of the current members of TAG Love Lane have been waiting to be housed by the council for a number of years after becoming homeless.

Most of them have been forced to move house regularly – often several times during the same year – due to a shortage of affordable homes and temporary accommodation.

They now face being moved again, as the Love Lane Estate could be demolished under the High Road West regeneration scheme – partly to make way for a walkway from White Hart Lane railway station to the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium.

TAG Love Lane is campaigning for at least 2,500 council homes to be built on the Love Lane Estate at social rent, and for all current tenants – including homeless households – to be given council homes on the estate.

They also want a guarantee for new homes to be built before tenants are moved, homeless payments for households in temporary accommodation, and a right to vote on the future of the estate.

The council has sent out a letter stating residents in temporary accommodation on the estate are able to vote on the regeneration plan – but only if they have been on the housing register for a year or more.

TAG Love Lane is concerned this could mean many people on Love Lane estate will not be given a say in its future.

Members’ first priority is to boost their profile and ensure residents who were “disheartened” with the council-run residents’ association join their group.

They have set up a Twitter account, arranged meetings with the council leader and cabinet members and are printing leaflets to distribute to tenants.

Mr Bonner said: “We have made more progress in two-and-a-half weeks than we have ever seen.”

Cllr Emine Ibrahim, cabinet member for housing and estate renewal and deputy leader of Haringey Council, said: “We will be consulting all residents in Love Lane on our proposed offer to them over the coming months.

“In formulating this offer, we will have to balance the obvious and very serious needs of the temporary accommodation residents in Love Lane with the needs of every other family on our housing register – each dealing with their own very difficult circumstances and many of whom have been waiting for many years.

Cllr Emina Ibrahim

“After that consultation we will carefully consider all the responses before finalising our offer to residents.

“We will then conduct a ballot on the redevelopment proposals, and our offer to residents, which will be fully in line with the Mayor of London’s requirements on how ballots should be run, including those on giving a vote to temporary accomodation residents on the housing register for over a year.”