Sacked housing board tenants launch Town Hall protest

FAMILIES are calling on their Town Hall to step in to resolve an ongoing deadlock with directors of the housing management company running their estate. There was major uproar last year on four estates on the Isle of Dogs after all of the residents on the local housing board were fired

By Gemma Collins

FAMILIES are calling on their Town Hall to step-in to resolve an ongoing deadlock with directors of the housing management company running their estate in London's East End.

There was major uproar last year on four estates on the Isle of Dogs run by Island Homes, after all of the residents on the local housing board were fired.

Now the tenants are presenting a petition to Tower Hamlets council on Monday (February 9) calling for the authority to investigate the actions of Island Homes' parent group One Housing and help mediate.

It is the second call to the Town Hall since the row began. Councilors agreed on an emergency resolution in October and wrote to housing minister Margaret Beckett to intervene.

But tenants claim the council has still not taken action, months later.

All four estates, the Samuda, St John's, Barkantine and Kingsbridge, were transferred from council management in 2005 under Housing Choice.

But public housing campaigners say promises of a local housing management board led by residents themselves are now in tatters.