Sunday, March 24, 2013

West Ham doorstep & Leaflet drop

Pictures in collage are from yesterday morning ward leaflet drop and street surgery 2 weeks earlier.

I was asked to go into one house to see rubbish dumped in a rear garden by a local landlord agency which I later reported. Apart from this eyesore the family liked living in the area but were private tenants with no security of tenure.

Each year their Landlord's agent comes back wanting more rent or they face eviction. This is just plain stupid and the only people who really benefit from this churn are the agents.

Good tenants want security of tenure and good landlords want good tenants. Landlords don't want the time and expense of evicting tenants who pay their rent on time and respect their property. Why can't we have sensible regulation of rents and tenancies like they do in most of Europe and even in parts of the USA?

Yesterday I came across this plaque on a wall in Redriffe Road, E15 dating from1884 which I had never noticed before.  This land use to belong to St Mary's Church in Rotherhithe, South London (or Surrey as that part of London use to be part) and had been purchased in trust for the poor of the parish in 1659. The excellent local history website Newham Story says that the land was leased in 1878 for 80 years to build homes (and maybe a pub). I wonder who is the freeholder now?

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