Tenants Meetings
We have been holding local tenants meetings across the country to listen to the common concerns of small businesses. Our next one in Manchester on 3rd June 2019, the details will be shared with everyone who joins as a founding member.
Collective action works!
National Audit Office Report into the Sale of the Arches
Our collective action was also instrumental in Meg Hillier MP requesting The National Audit Office to investigate the sale of the arches. Although this report is retrospective in its findings, it does evidence what we can achieve by working together. The report states that our needs as tenants of the arches were never considered and a commitment to tenants’ needs has been put in place only because of the collective voice of Guardians of the Arches.
You can read the summary and full report here
Statement from Guardians of the Arches in response to the NAO Report:
Leni Jones, Director of Guardians of the Arches, said:
“This report confirms that tenants’ interests were only considered during the sale process because we forced Network Rail and the government to listen. We were ignored until we made that impossible through our campaign. That was a major dereliction of duty by both Network Rail and the Government.
It also confirms that the arches were sold on the basis of big rent increases in the coming years. This is exactly what arches tenants fear the most. We are the backbone of our communities, driving local economic development and bringing variety and vitality to urban neighbourhoods all over the country. Big rent increases will kill that vitality stone dead.
Thankfully, the sale process has brought us together. Guardians of the Arches is coordinating and organising tenants and we are working together to protect our interests and hold the new owners to account for their impact on us, our customers and communities. We know that tenants need affordable rent, secure leases and a mix of industrial uses across the estate. The new owners are yet to prove that they will really put tenants first by delivering on these priorities. If they try to impose further crippling rent increases at the scale suggested by Network Rail, they can expect organised opposition.”
Affordable Workspace & Rentcheck App
We are working closely with the East End Trades Guild on a Working Rent Manifesto which has already got the support of the Mayors of Hackney and Tower Hamlets and the Greater London Authority, we need your support to replicate this across the whole of the UK.
Find out more about our compelling evening of people, politics and action here.
With thanks to Jeremy Freedman for the photographs.
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