The Metropolis

London's newest architectural wonder unveils this afternoon: a cardboard city

Josh Hall | Thursday 15 September, 2011 14:38

This afternoon, Eric Pickles (pictured) will find an unusual surprise on his doorstep.

As he leaves his office in the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) he will notice that a new settlement will have been established – a Cardboard City in the heart of the City of Westminster.

The pop-up encampment will highlight three key policies developed or encouraged by the government, each of which will increase the existing crisis of homelessness – a crisis that is already spiralling dangerously out of control.

Exhibit A: Eric Pickles, David Cameron, and numerous other government ministers have personally backed the eviction of entire families from council housing where one resident is convicted of riot-related charges. Dozens of letters warning of potential evictions have already been sent out by councils across London. Wandsworth, never a local authority to knowingly be outdone when it comes to kneejerk stupidity, has already begun eviction proceedings against the mother of an 18-year old boy accused (accused, not yet convicted) of an offence. This crude form of collective, extra-judicial punishment will make the mother, son, and a young daughter homeless.

Exhibit B: Around 500 people, including 100 children, are threatened with imminent eviction from land that they own. The eviction of the Traveller community at Dale Farm, conducted by Basildon Council, will cost at least £18 million – much of which has come from central government coffers. The rendering homeless of so many hundreds of people will ultimately cost significantly more.

Bailiffs are currently building a compound directly adjacent to the site, in preparation for what is likely to be an extended eviction conducted by force. Electricity to the site will be cut off on Monday.

A former UN advisor on forced evictions has called on the government to halt the move, indicating that it is likely to constitute a violation of rules of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Yet the Prime Minister has repeatedly backed the Council – and the Home Office is helping to foot the bill.

Exhibit C: The Localism Bill will abolish the right to a council home for life. It will allow local authorities to pick and choose who goes on council housing waiting lists. It will, according to the deputy chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, create a “revolving door of poverty.”

The wide-ranging bill, shoddily constructed and hastily pushed through Parliament, will also see new home-building targets scrapped – something at which Eric Pickles had previously aimed, but which had been struck down in the courts.

The coalition is using homelessness as a weapon, wielding it towards anyone they deem undesirable: Travellers, the families of alleged offenders, council tenants. Official figures suggest that homelessness increased by 17 per cent during the past year. The actual number is likely to be far higher – and the rot is only just beginning to set in.

Homelessness is not a policy tool, and it should never be a punishment – not for being related to a looter, and certainly not for having the temerity to build on land that you own. Let’s start evicting this government, not the poor.

No to Evictions Flash Mob: Facebook page

You can contact this writer at josh@joshhall.net

---