Video: I Discuss the Tidemill Eviction, the Broken ‘Regeneration’ Industry and Sadiq Khan’s Stealthy Elimination of Social Rents

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On Saturday, I was interviewed about the Save Reginald Save Tidemill campaign, and broader issues relating to the housing ‘regeneration’ industry after a rally at City Hall, ‘No Demolition Without Permission’, that was set up primarily for tenants of council estates facing demolition, who have not been given ballots on the future of their homes, despite it having been official Labour Party policy since last September. One of the 34 estates affected is Reginald House in Deptford, a block of 16 structurally sound council flats, which the Save Reginald Save Tidemill campaign is determined to save, along with the Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden.

The 15-minute video, posted below, was shot by Bob Robertson of Ladywell Labour Party, who I first met earlier this year, when I was on a Saturday stall in Deptford Market with other Tidemill campaigners, spreading the word about the need to preserve the precious and irreplaceable community garden and the 16 structurally sound council flats of Reginald House, next door, and for Lewisham Council and the developer, Peabody, to go back to the drawing board, and to work with the community on new plans for the Tidemill site, which includes the old Tidemill primary school as well as the garden and the flats.

Bob was very supportive, and spoke frankly about efforts within the Labour Party in Lewisham to shift the political focus away from the corporate-focused ‘regeneration’ frenzy that took place under Steve Bullock — and that we are now seeing replicated under the new Mayor Damien Egan, and his Cabinet, including the Member for Housing Paul Bell — but he acknowledged, of course, that it is an uphill struggle to change those in charge, even though the membership of the party is more solidly left-leaning than it has been for some time because of the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader three years ago.

We spent some time discussing an interview, which he wanted to undertake to help Labour Party members in Lewisham understand what is wrong with the council’s housing policy — and, in general, the housing policy of London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan — and this video, posted below, is the result.

In it, I discussed the violent eviction of the Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden last Monday, and how unacceptable that was under any circumstances, and I also spoke about campaigners’ disappointment with the council for never having engaged with the local community in any meaningful sense regarding alternative plans for the Tidemill site that would spare the garden and Reginald House. The destruction of Reginald House, I can only conclude, is part of a stealthy and unprincipled London-wide effort, backed by Sadiq Khan, to do away with homes at social rents altogether, to replace them with new homes let at ‘London Affordable Rent’, which in Lewisham is 63% higher than social rents. 

I also discussed how, although Lewisham Council is bragging about providing over 50% ‘social housing’ at Tidemill, that’s a lie, because although 104 of the 209 new builds at Tidemill fit some definition of ‘social homes’ — but at ‘London Affordable Rent’ rather than at social rents — Tidemill is twinned with Amersham Vale, where 120 homes are planned, only 20% of which will be ‘social housing’ (again, ‘London Affordable Rent’), with 81 of the 120 homes for private sale, to add to the 51 for private sale at Tidemill. That means that the percentage of ‘social homes’ across both sites is just 39%.

I also discussed the council’s extremely dubious claims, via Cllr. Joe Dromey, that the decanted residents of Reginald House will have ‘like for like’ social rents guaranteed for life, and that they and all the tenants on the new Tidemill development will have guaranteed lifetime tenancies, when no such tenancies have existed since they were abolished by Margaret Thatcher 30 years ago. I also pointed out how there is a howling silence from the council whenever I have mentioned that, if they’re offering ‘like for like’ rents to Reginald House tenants, who don’t want to have their homes destroyed, then the logical position to take is not to bother knocking their homes down in the first place.

I also spoke about the significance of the Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden on two fronts — as an important community green space, and as a barrier to the horrendous pollution in nearby Deptford Church Street — and why Cllr. Paul Bell’s statement, during a radio interview, that it wasn’t Kew Gardens was so condescending, and in conclusion I also mentioned how outrageous it was that the council evicted the garden so violently while an appeal is ongoing — an appeal that we submitted after a judge turned down our request for a judicial review on October 17.

I hope you have time to watch the interview, and will share it if you find it useful.

Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer, film-maker and singer-songwriter (the lead singer and main songwriter for the London-based band The Four Fathers, whose music is available via Bandcamp). He is the co-founder of the Close Guantánamo campaign (and see the latest photo campaign here) and the successful We Stand With Shaker campaign of 2014-15, and the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (click on the following for Amazon in the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. He is also the co-director (with Polly Nash) of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (available on DVD here — or here for the US), and for his photo project ‘The State of London’ he publishes a photo a day from six years of bike rides around the 120 postcodes of the capital.

In 2017, Andy became very involved in housing issues. He is the narrator of a new documentary film, ‘Concrete Soldiers UK’, about the destruction of council estates, and the inspiring resistance of residents, he wrote a song ‘Grenfell’, in the aftermath of the entirely preventable fire in June 2017 that killed over 70 people, and he also set up ‘No Social Cleansing in Lewisham’ as a focal point for resistance to estate destruction and the loss of community space in his home borough in south east London. For two months, from August to October 2018, he was part of the occupation of the Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden in Deptford, to prevent its destruction — and that of 16 structurally sound council flats next door — by Lewisham Council and Peabody. Although the garden was violently evicted by bailiffs on October 29, 2018, the resistance continues.

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