HUNDREDS of families in tower blocks in London’s East End are threatening a rent strike in a protest today because their lifts don’t work. They are planning to demonstrate outside Tower Hamlets Council’s area housing office in the Roman Road at lunchtime.
By Keir Mudie
HUNDREDS of families in tower blocks in London’s East End are threatening a rent strike in a protest today because their lifts don’t work.
They are planning to demonstrate outside Tower Hamlets Council’s area housing office in the Roman Road at lunchtime.
The tenants from Rodick House in Saxon Road in Bow are planning to withhold their rent in a dispute over broken lifts in their 24-storey building.
New lifts installed just six months ago keep breaking down, causing problems for pensioners, mums with young children and the disabled.
Protest organiser Nurhan Ramaj told the East London Advertiser today: “There is a pregnant woman who has to climb all the way to the 19th floor. It’s just not safe.
“We also had an ambulance crew in here who had to call another ambulance to help carry someone down from one of the top floors.”
The angry families are calling for rent rebates and are threatening to withhold payments.
Nurhan: “Everyone here won’t pay rent until this is all sorted.”
Town Hall bosses have since sent a squad of lift engineers to Rodick House to fix the broken lifts.
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