Labour MPs Call For Extension of Squatting Ban To Protect Profits of Property Tycoons

squatAs homelessness in the capital soars, three senior Labour Party figures have launched an all out attack on homeless people by demanding new laws to protect property developers and landlords from squatters.

Head of Lambeth Council, Lib Peck, MP for Streatham and Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna along with Dulwich MP Tessa Jowell have all signed a joint letter this week written to bungling Justice Secretary Chris Grayling demanding that the squatting ban be extended to commercial properties.

Showing exactly whose side they are on – and it ain’t ours – the treacherous trio claim:

“Unfortunately, the problem of squatters for commercial property owners has since worsened, and Lambeth has seen an increase in the number of squatters now specifically targeting non-residential buildings. Extending the law to protect businesses would be a welcome move.”

The letter contains examples of spurious claims about squatters damaging property, even stooping as low as claiming that an attempted suicide in one squat is a reason that this vital lifeline for homeless people should be banned.

One of these squats was Patmos Lodge, a former care home which had been home to 100 previously homeless residents until they were violently evicted on the orders of Lambeth Council.  The Council want to demolish the building and flog off the land, no doubt to property developers looking to build yet more yuppy flats.

Multi-millionaire property tycoons have long attempted to blame squatters for damage caused to buildings left abandoned as investments, or simply because they’re so fucking rich they can afford to leave a property empty. They seem to believe they have a divine right to occupy large swathes of city centres, leaving buildings to become derelict eyesores until they judge it profitable enough to bother knocking them down and turning them into luxury flats that local people could never dream of affording.

Meanwhile at least one homeless man has died as a direct result of the ban on squatting in residential properties.  Daniel Gauntlett was just 35 years old when he was found dead of hypothermia outside an empty bungalow in Aylesford at the end of February.  Reports claimed he had previously attempted to sleep inside the boarded up property but had been prevented after police were called.  The  bungalow was due to be bulldozed.

When this death was reported MPs calling for further bans on squatting didn’t even blink in the face of the desperate consequences likely for some due to these new laws.  It is better to them that someone poor dies in the gutter than the rich be mildly inconvenienced when it comes to renovating their property portfolios.

Yet this tragic death revealed the truth about the squatting ban, which is not that it was intended to stop families coming home from holiday to find squatters living in their home.  There were always more than adequate laws to prevent that.  This law was introduced to protect the investments of the rich, with callous disregard for those who find themselves without a bed for the night and may seek to take life-saving shelter in an abandoned building.

According to a letter published in The Guardian last March, not one of the 33 people arrested in the first six months of the squatting ban – 3 of whom have received prison sentences – involved squatters displacing people from their homes.  Yet this law built on lies, which many housing lawyers say should be repealed, isn’t enough for these three senior Labour figures who want yet more penalties for homeless people trying to avoid death by seeking a roof for the night.

Both Tessa Jowell and Chuka Umunna are yet more chinless public school wonders living pampered lives and are not likely to have ever experienced the stark terror of being without a home.  They are far more likely to empathise with grasping property developers complaining that their precious investment is being harmed by homeless plebs.  And so they are quite happy to team up with a vile Tory Minister like Chris Grayling in a bid to strip away what’s left of a centuries old right for the destitute and the homeless.

When it comes to fucking over the poor, whether Labour or Tory, they really are all in it together.

Visit The Squash Campaign or squat.net for the latest news on the fight to save what’s left of squatting rights, Eviction Resistance for direct ways to fight back and the Advisory Service for Squatters if you need legal and practical advice.

The letter to Grayling is at: http://lambethnews.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/fao-chris-grayling-mp.pdf

Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid

119 responses to “Labour MPs Call For Extension of Squatting Ban To Protect Profits of Property Tycoons

  1. Perhaps one day these rich snobs who like to believe that they have power, will be homeless. Filthy scum.

  2. @johhnyvoid remember the vauxhall squats that was posted on your blog around the time of the helicopter crash because of the lavish and stupid high rise apartments there?..

  3. Aylesford, not Aylesbury.

  4. overburdenddonkey

    so sensible people thinking, i’ll take care of my own needs, via a deep unshakable passion to live independently, in squats?
    coz all other means of putting a roof over their heads has been barbarically excluded from them, via criminal economic means.
    this is imposed on people, to force them to serve their oppressors, and is not criminal, in natures eyes, it is in desperation to seek shelter….that one must 1st slog to be free, is not freedom in any terms..
    a fair days work for a fair days pay…what ever happened to work rest and play? where are the jobs? mp’s et al, should slash their lavish lifestyles, and not blame the poor for being poor…

    • It is horrible. I remember once giving a scratch card winnings of £5 to a homeless man in Bury. There were four teenagers staring at this young man who wasn’t begging, he was just keeping himself to himself. I felt that there was so much hate in the hearts of these four teenagers. I cried all the way home. What has happened to our hearts, it seems that it has closed off to the God of this world, which is money. People worship that more than kindness. WE always have a choice to do good, and these people in power are no longer working for the people, but have become service to self people. They do not set a good example to children, they are just setting the example of take take take for the self, and fuck everyone else.

  5. OBD…mps et al, should slash their lavish wrists.

  6. Yet another great article, thanks.

    And election after election, the so-called liberal elite and large swathes of the lied-to working class feel they are combating Tory policy by marking a little X next to the Labour Party candidate. On the whole, they’re not – just simply legitimising Tory policy acted out through a proxy called the Labour Party.
    The problem of modern Britain = the problem of Labour policy.

    • They’re all the same plonkers. Empty promises. I don’t vote anymore. Should be interesting when it comes to filling in the electoral roll register, because they can fine me but they’re not getting a signature from me EVER AGAIN. it’s silly when you think about it because fines is all they ever do to get us to follow the rules. And I thought slavery was abolished!

  7. At pmqs yesterday Ed Millipede, challenged the gov front bench to live on £150 per wk,which shows just how out of touch he really is, if he thinks JSA is as much as that.

    • Yep these illusionists in power have NO IDEA and need to step off their “I’m better than everyone else” cloud of deceit. Wow when these people wake up they’ll be topping themselves because of the horrendous guilt. I’d like to meet the knob(s) who sets the JSA, as I’m sure they’re not living on that small amount, although it must be at least up to £75 per week by now. Still peanuts.

      • £71.70 could just about buy peanuts.

        • overburdenddonkey

          noctilu..
          yeah thats right i remember, we had a lavish increase last april, i splashed out and bought a 200g bag of economy peanuts…

        • Wow £71.70. Take away the housing benefit that people have to pay because of the draconian tax 14% and the additional council tax, that’s not enough for electricity, water, food, and other essentials. Sorry but Council Tax is not a priority, so don’t know why these law societies and CAB say it is.

          • overburdenddonkey

            girl with a dirty mind
            many people are left with under £30/wk after deductions, and that’s before the sanctions factory gets hold of them..
            ie council tax, bedroom tax, water charges etc…
            that said, the law says £71.70 is enough to live on, but no one can point to the formula, or examples of how this figure was achieved..so how are people expected to live on sub £30/wk?
            all of these taxes have to be paid, or one is chased for payment…

            • That’s what I mean, who said these debts have to be paid, some posse Government. I say NO. It’s time we all stood up and said NO. The money that I would pay for Council Tax I now give to charity. That is more of a priority for me than paying into some Gold capped pension scheme for these service to self councillors.

            • overburdenddonkey

              an interesting perspective, but for many not a very practical solution..

            • Yeah, Girl with a dirty mind, gold-plated pension schemes is where 99p out of every pound we pay 🙂 goes; it certainly not our Third World potholed roads anyway lol

            • Someone somewhere must have sat down and calculated what the minimal amount is. Perhaps a FOI request might show how the amount is arrived at.

            • The law says, has been conveniently dropped from DWP brown envelope propaganda after loads of people requested how the £71 was arrived at.
              I submitted a freedom of information request and they told me that “no exercise has ever been done to see if the £71.70 would sustain a person”.
              This speaks volumes…………

          • Basically it’s a ‘priority’ because a person can be sent to prison for not paying it, which isn’t the case if you owe money for water. I personally think that this makes Council Tax a protection racket, as basically the council is telling us to pay up or else. Sadly Council Tax is the reformed version of the Poll Tax we ended up with, as in my opinion the change didn’t go far enough. I don’t personally agree with any form of compulsory taxation, (it’s a form of theft) but at the very least it should have become a local income tax based on ability to pay.

      • And why is Pension Credit just over TWICE the amount of JSA (not that anyone begrudges pensioners their King’s Ransom 🙂 ?) How come when you reach a certain age you suddenly need TWICE the amount of money to live on, what is that all about?; is that not tantamount to saying that JSA is NOT enough to live on!

        • overburdenddonkey

          church mouse…
          it is hard to get one’s head around that…millipede claiming £150/wk is tough to live on, as i see it is a rags to riches story…therefore admitting £71/wk is not enough!

        • Basically Pension Credit is intended to pay the minimum for survival assuming the recipient will never return to work. On the other hand JSA assumes a short-term income to tide over the recipient until they resume work. Of course we know better. The scummy government would like to abolish Pension Credit – we know that the the odious little shit IDS, Camoron and the rest of his brain-dead Hooray Henry crew have pensioners in their sights. “Happy Euthenasia” ™ centre before being carried off to the nearest Soylent Green factory.

    • murray he probably included rent in that amount, which if it was £100 rent they would be left with £50 to pay bills, buy food, clothes,replace worn out household items etc., which is even less than £72 jsa.

  8. Not only treacherous but hypocritical: Chuka Umunna was recently exposed for the fraud he is when after complaining about the proliferation of betting shops in his constituency he then accepted a £20,000 donation from a gambling tycoon – what a twat!

    When it comes to the homeless all the main parties subscribe (overtly or covertly) to Tory toff, Sir George Young’s philosophy, that they’re the sort of people “you step over when you come out of the opera”

  9. Chuka’s gonna be the next Labour leader (or at least, has to be the favourite), so brace yourself for Blue Labour (If you can see the join)

  10. just a thought… if Grant Shapps knows how to make £20,000 in 20 days, how come he’s not the chancellor instead of the useless prick Osborne?

  11. Department for Workhouses and Prisons

    Why aren’t you scroungers getting jobs?

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  13. Look at what cretin Jowell’s tweeted: https://twitter.com/jowellt

    I doubt the ‘facts’ are fully known on this case; and, look at the bill cleaning up the corruption of bastards like her

  14. Once, years a go I wrote, attempting levity, to a friend abroad, describing the future policies of the government to reduce the number of the poor:
    “…they first will try to starve and sicken them by progressively cutting their benefits and making their life stressful. Then, when they are at the most dispirited and weaken, they’ll evict them.
    In winter, when they are lucky to escape gangs of cannibals and die of exposure, their bones are collected by bonded street sweepers and used as fertilisers in the local parks”.
    I see now I was just looking into a crystal ball…

  15. Just got a letter from Brown envelope division of Hull Benefit Centre of SHEFFIELD, incidentally i live in Scarborough………

    The letter, from the manager, Tony Sayer, informs me that my contribution based ESA will end on 1 November 2013.

    ” WHAT CHANCE HAS UNIVERSAL CREDIT, OF WORKING PROPERLY, GIVEN THAT THEY STOPPED MY ESA LAST NOVEMBER?”

  16. I’m starting to thank God that we have the Tories in power, we need them to hold back the FAR, FAR, FAR right wing New Labour party and the FAR, FAR, FAR right wing trade unions who support them by giving New Labour lots and lots of money.

    Its ALL a big JOKE on us folks!, when will people understand ALL the main parties are the SAME.

    WAKE UP, for GOD’S SAKE…WAKE UP!!!.

  17. Fuck Labour, they’re all cut from the same priviledged, self-serving cloth as the condems,Arses the lot of them & the last person to enter Westminster with good intentions was Guy Fawkes

  18. hear hear kittycat!

  19. greed has burned a hole in the hearts of men ..it will never be filled they will never have enough….prince naddalla

  20. Max Keiser yesterday exposed the senario we in Britain have to look forward to, no hope for us. Watch on RT.

  21. What was the keiser report about murray so that I can find it on utube or playback tv? was it this:-

  22. Fawksey… It was yesterdays report about how the 1% no longer need any local workers as all jobs are exported to China.

  23. Thanks folks for informing me.

  24. Pingback: Labour MPs Call For Extension of Squatting Ban To Protect Profits of Property Tycoons | murray22blog

  25. WHILST THE DEATHS OF THOSE WHO HAVE SUCCUMBED TO THE FALLOUT CAUSED BY THE TRULY EVIL CRIMES OF WELFARE REFORMS SPIRAL HOPELESSLY OUT OF CONTROL, THIS IS THE ANSWER FROM OUR GOVERNMENT;

    “PLASTIC BAGS ARE TO COST 5 PENCE”

    WHAT FUCKING WORLD DO THESE IMBECILES BELONG ON?, IT CERTAINLY IS’NT THE ONE WHERE I LIVE!!

    PENSIONERS ARE DYING OF HYPOTHERMIA, PEOPLE ARE HAVING THEIR HOMES TAKEN, DISABLED ARE BEING STARVED TO DEATH AND MORE CHILDREN ARE BEING BORN INTO POVERTY THAT AT ANY TIME SINCE THE LAST WAR.

    The only thing that is booming is food banks, yet these gormless bastards who got more for attending a parliament call back for Thatchers death, than i get to live on for a full year, have the impudence to place “a shilling tariff on plastic bags”, at the top of the agenda…………………………

    They chose to ridicule a report by a UNITED NATIONS inspector on the real plight of our nation, while they pass legislation on a bag………………………….

    The leaking of the bag tariff, has taken the thunder from the Lib Dems conference…….it has been revealed!!

    WAKE UP YOU DELUDED TOSSBAGS!

    “THERE MUST BE MORE BRAIN CELLS IN A DISCARDED SHOWER CAP THAN THE WHOLE OF OUR REPRESENTATIVES IN WESTMINSTER”

    WORDS FAIL ME. WE MIGHT AS WELL HAVE A GOLDFISH ON A LEAD………………………

    • @geoff reynolds maybe they will be hoping that charging 5p per plastic bag for every pensioner who suffocated themselves using the poxy bags..

      • overburdenddonkey

        chewie..
        finally, the govt that was not elected, come up with a policy to call their own, just when i thought they were running out of ideas…a 5p plastic bag how useful…

        • well what a bunch of scrounging bastards. What ever next. It gets worse every day. Geoff is right they should be addressing more slightly important issues on the news such as all the disabled and the poor dying from their cuts, that only applied to the poor people of this country, The bags policy sounds like silly twats talk to cover their nasty dealings, and the atrocities.

          Oh bobchewie I know everyone had cottoned on that Unum provident is behind DWP and is as corrupt as fuck. I meant the general public of this country are in the dark. Probably all buying their phoney back up plan insurance now. God not us no, we are wise to these fucking vipers. Snakes in the grass.

          • @jasmine yeah but how do you get that info out to a wider audience and have it relevant to them?

            • bobchewie

              Well I think everyone is doing a great job with bloggs like Johnny voids, there are many who are trying every day to warn people , like yourself.
              As for the general public who are so busy working every day, they may not have time to even notice, and as they are well and able bodied it has not affected them yet.

              The rich are sitting high and dry and are loving this authoritarian government who are making them richer by the minute. We have to keep fighting and campaigning to reach the people who care about people and society still, and do not put greed and money before people. There are people still left with feelings and conscience thank god. Just keep spreading the word!!.

              We got to get these Machealovian leaders OUT, because they have been BRAINWASHING our society. Teaching society about competitive individualism, money, property and a designer lifestyle, This is a form of pathocracy. Well it is fine if the people want nice things, but it is not fine when it comes to the expense of hostility and destruction of a target group.

              I like Johnny Voids new picture on this site that says condemned. It does feel that way for the poor right now.

      • Poor. Old. Tired. Horse

        Now we know why Clegg nodded through increases in further education tuition fees and cuts to social security benefits. For the past three-and-a-half years all of his intellectual energies have been focused on devising a plan to impose a tax on plastic bags.

        Given that he and his party will be binned come May 2015, this seems particularly apt.

    • Geoff

      The government are jumping back onto the lucrative green agenda bandwagon, we will probably be seeing a lot of it before the next election.

    • IF the UN report had found in their favour these fucking tory bastards would have crowing it from the rooftops! Arseholes!

      • overburdenddonkey

        kittycat58..
        ah, she has now asked for people accounts of e and sa and wca, it seems…raquel rolnik also has a wordpress blog too which at 1st glance is very interesting…

  26. Is anyone else having problems seeing other peoples comments on the tom pride blog?

  27. I wonder if the over blog site is not as good as Tom thought or as he said he has more control over it and is not allowing us in to see other comments, I just wish he would correct it.

  28. Donkey…Just read the link.really makes you want to vote YES next year,if still here.

  29. PS I finally got into the comments, even though at the time it had 5 comments when I got in apparently I was the first to comment.

  30. Guy…. might be that nobody has commented.

    • murray

      It said 5 had commented so I cliicked on it. Now it doesn’t tell you at all how many comment on the page. A comment I made 5 hours ago when I clicked in had disappeared so I pressed replenish and it popped on again, sorry but I don’t like the new set up. On one of his posts further back it had a comment under my name and moniker or whatever you call it which I had not writter someone else did and it was repeated on two other people’s comments, one of which must have been the original.

  31. “A FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST TO THE DWP ON, WHAT DO THEY KNOW, WEBSITE”

    From: C Robinson

    8 September 2013

    Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

    I am writing this FOI because I have seen many differing views
    regarding clause 99 and the catch 22 situation that it puts sick
    and disabled claimants in,

    So my questions are thus:

    Q1 When a person is refused ESA and appeals against the decision,
    what benefits can he claim if s/he has no income?

    Q2 If an ESA refusal claimant is too “fit” for ESA, but too sick or
    disabled for JSA what is there recourse?
    (i) How will they pay their bills?
    (ii) How will they be able to get medication? (as they will not be
    on any benefits to qualify for free prescriptions)
    (iii) What about their homes? Will you still cover the rent? Or
    will you be setting up modern-day workhouses?
    (iv) Where are their human rights? I refer to article 6 and 25
    respectively. Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights
    act is a provision of the European Convention which protects the
    right to a fair trial. In criminal law cases and cases to determine
    civil rights it protects the right to a public hearing before an
    independent and impartial tribunal within reasonable time, the
    presumption of innocence, and other minimum rights for those
    charged in a criminal case (adequate time and facilities to prepare
    their defence, access to legal representation, right to examine
    witnesses against them or have them examined, right to the free
    assistance of an interpreter). Article 25. (1) Everyone has the
    right to a standard of living adequate for the health and
    well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing,
    housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the
    right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness,
    disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in
    circumstances beyond his control.

    Q3 How can someone have a fair hearing (see article 6 above) at a
    tribunal when you have driven them into a catch 22 situation? i.e.
    A claimant refused ESA, through sheer destitution has to sign on
    and as soon as they do it cancels out their appeal, even though
    they are too ill to work and have no chance of getting a job. How
    legal is this since the UK signed the Human Rights act? Pursuant of
    this how many appeals will be made to the ECHR?

    Q4 When a person is turned away from the JCP because s/he doesn’t
    fit the criteria to sign on (their illnesses means hospital
    appointments, etc) what are their rights if any?

    Q5 What impact will Clause 99 have on the Infrastructure? i.e:
    (i) The NHS?
    (ii) Foodbanks?
    (iii) Social Services?
    (iv) The Police (people HAVE turned to crime when they have no
    income whatsoever)
    (v) Local Councils (How can people pay the council tax with no
    money)?
    Q6 How long will it be before the application of Clause 99 causes
    chaos and meltdown?
    Q7 How many deaths will this cause?

    Yours faithfully,

    C Robinson

    Link to this
    https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/clause_99_and_the_catch_22_situa

  32. @ chewie….I was on the site yesterday and it was changed then. Tom explained in an answer to Guy Fawkes, why he had changed it. It should still be on the site if you want to check it out.

    • @murray it doesnt matter its just words re arranged in some order to create sentences in order to convey ‘meaning’ and theres already too much of that sort of thing..nowadays as it is..bout time govt cracked down on all that…

  33. @chewie.. is that not what the plain english campaigne is all about?

  34. @Murray & chewie – don’t you guys ever sleep?

    • i came across this blog which is about digital dementia..it goes on to say stuff about people brains being ‘rewired’ to the degree they are damaged to the effect they will no longer have any empathy with others..it makes you think about jcp+ dwp ids and UC ..

      no links to conspiracy sites please, here’s another link about the same thing – jv http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/southkorea/10138403/Surge-in-digital-dementia.html

      • overburdenddonkey

        chewie
        and here is another link to the same thing which instead shows the reality… http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2010/jun/05/child-criminal-camila-batmanghelidjh

        • @JV its not a conspiracy site – outlaw has written about child sex abuse cases…

          • and that some people have alien blood. I wish you’d check your sources a bit deeper sometimes Bob,

            • @JV yeah my sources like house of commons speeches, hansard, DWP GOV UK..internal memos from MPs..quotes from people who worked on Universal Credit as project managers quotes from top brass at sue ryder charity..oh them…ok..roger wilco..

            • @JV btw outlaw to you maybe bonkers but he was in care at north wales care homes when the abuses took place- on another blog he told us that kids there were ferried to Elm Guest house in london where VIP nonces abused kids there..thus proving a link between the two cases as we had suspected all the time but this proved it..

              i do stuff on other blogs as well you know…
              in fact ive been acredited on them a few times..

              moan over…

              • doesn’t that suggest why the conspiracy stuff is so dangerous, because if he is telling the truth about that his credibility is somewhat undermined by him posting about some people having alien blood – which has its roots in a particularly nasty conspiracy theories based on RH blood groups which is often used to suggest that white european heritage people are star people with advanced intelligence and super powers unlike africans and indians who evolved from monkeys

                and please cut down on the cut and pastes on the other thread, remember some people are using phones to access this site and it can be a nightmare scrolling through reams of text.

                moan over.

                • @oh contraire in fact he’d sooner write about the bonkers stuff as the child abuse stuff people have major rows about.and he got fed up about it all..last time it kicked off quite badly..

                  anyways….

                  i have serious investigations to look into at the moment..so i will leave you in peace. to get on with it all…

                  i might come back later but i wouldnt guarantee it..

                  have fun……

                • @JV just before i depart -not much of a choice-you can get a posted link which opens tabs with full websites with graphics which makes the phone plod a bit or you can get lines of text extrapolated from said web page..i’ve read blogs on poxy little crap phones before so i know what you mean..

                  –er thats it…you can be such a knob sometimes- nevermind- you mean well..thats what matters..keep it up..

                  back to the grind…..exeunt..

            • overburdenddonkey

              chewie
              come on man, these long copy and paste link posts hurt my eyes, why not précis these post and say what you think about them..yes include the link…all i want is the opinions of people, and perhaps a source…i want to read your views…

              • @donkey as i say you can have the c and p’s or the whole webpage..i have chopped them up before but they look like spam..posts and get caught in spam filters..i thought by doing this it would save ppl endlessly going to websites and the phone or pc slogging away…

                when you are digging away..you often run into lengthy quotes and phrases…and you dont want to overlook stuff that rings bells or seems relevant..blimey have you read govt docs?? they waffle on with clauses and sub clauses but the thing is that they can be better than newspaper articles as they really are opinions which are subjective..at least govt or company waffle you can use to shoot them with..

                anyways…dont blame me im only the messenger..BANG !!..

          • overburdenddonkey

            chewie…
            we are all by the very nature of posting, messengers, and often your posts sparkle, sometimes they are too long for me to read, that is my view…keep posting you know you love it…

  35. we’ll miss you chewie.

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