It has been reported that women fleeing abuse and other vulnerable families continue to be moved to the North East by London local authorities in a practice described as “ripping at the social fabric” of deprived towns, and that campaigners and lawyers argue is unlawful.
As the housing crisis deepens further, so “the number of homeless people forced out of London has doubled in the past two years.”
According to Freedom of Information data obtained by The Guardian, a large number of families with children have been moved to sparsely furnished and cheap properties in some of the poorest parts of the North East.
The Guardian has also noted that “charities described the policy as “inhumane” and accused councils of targeting vulnerable refugees who speak little English and have little ability to understand or challenge the move. If they refuse, they are in effect forced onto the streets”.
One woman’s case
One particular case involved a woman from Albania who had to flee sex trafficking gangs in Belgium and Manchester. When she arrived in west London with a couple of young children, she thought she was safe, having been granted asylum and ready to start a new life. However, she still needed a home for herself and her children.
The woman involved was receiving vital support in London and said that she would feel completely hopeless and unsafe anywhere else. Despite this Ealing Council told her three weeks later that they had indeed found her somewhere to live, but it was in County Durham and that if she refused to move she would end up on the streets.
North East MP calls the practice a disgrace
Labour MP for Hartlepool, Jonathan Brash, said that it was a “disgrace” and accused councils in London of the “dumping of a crisis on to northern communities”.
Brash further commented: “It is undoubtedly the case that this kind of behaviour is increasing tension in towns like Hartlepool as local people face massive challenges with housing and other public services. It is ripping at the social fabric of the community I represent.”
On 9 June, The Guardian reported that ministers were considering measures that could prevent London councils from placing homeless families in deprived communities in the North East and elsewhere.
MPs have stated that women fleeing from abuse and other vulnerable people are being forced into a terrible choice of moving to sparsely furnished housing in the poorest parts of the country or having to sleep rough.
Consequently, homelessness charities say that on occasions victims of domestic abuse have to live in emergency domestic abuse shelters, while others have been returned to their abuser, from a desire not to move north. The problem has grown alongside the deepening housing crisis.
Comment
This is further evidence of how society has been run for the last 45 years. Neo-liberal orthodoxy causes so many problems to so many different and often vulnerable people. The starving of cash to councils, especially since 2010, the dearth of council housing built since the 1980s and the simple fact that people do not seem to matter to many in authority has caused this disgraceful situation.
It is unfair to the vulnerable people who are being forced to move hundreds of miles away from where they have settled, away from their support networks, often having previously emerged from very traumatic situations.
It is also unfair on communities in our North East, who are being unsettled by the unannounced arrival of new residents, with little or no warning or advanced preparation. It is this kind of situation which, given the prevalence of misinformation on social media, can cause so much trouble. Meanwhile the practice can also perpetuate a negative perception of these communities in the North East. The kind of message so many people within those communities are trying to overcome.
Hopefully the government bans this unfair and divisive practice. But above all there needs to be a reversal of the Thatcherite neo-liberal settlement of the 1980s, so that scenarios where people are treated so unfairly and callously don’t arise in the first place.
