Custom House has been living in the shadow of a failed regeneration for over 20 years. This has left a legacy of bad, unstable housing, private and public sector abandonment and large numbers of people moving in and out of the area. Housing has been a core issue for PEACH members ever since PEACH began in 2013. This issue is most widely felt by people living in the area and is usually the reason people get involved in PEACH. Following on from the Mears Cats and Love Custom House Now wins, we are now upping the stakes: we are still pushing for homes to be fixed and safe today and, on top of this, we are fighting to keep Custom House together and win permanent homes in the area.
Mears Cats
After 4 years of organising against Mears (formerly Tando), PEACH members won 60% rent reductions for 250 temporary tenant households, all households returned to council management and a £300k rent arrears amnesty. This transfer was completed in 2021.
Love Custom House Now
Love Custom House Now started in autumn 2021 when we started a petition, which we got all our neighbours to sign and took it to the Council offices to demand that they fix our homes and communal areas as soon as possible. The states of disrepair in the area was even worse due to Mears’ neglect of our homes. We won over £1 million refurbishment programme for the area! Now, hundreds of homes in the area have new kitchens, bathrooms and windows.
This hasn’t been without it’s challenges… members have been working hard since then to make sure the council does the repairs and refurbishments efficiently, fairly and everyone’s homes are brought up to good standard. The council have endlessly slipped on their promises, many homes are still waiting for refurbishments that the council promised to finish in 2022 and those with refurbishments done are seeing the issues come back. It’s not good enough!
Alternative Regeneration
The Alternative Regeneration was initiated in 2016 as a response to the lack of action from the council on the proposed regeneration of Custom House. We decided to develop a resident-led proposal for a Custom House masterplan to show what residents wanted for the regeneration and demonstrate that it was economically viable. The Alternative Regeneration plan was developed over a year with a core team of 5 local residents, 1 union organiser, 2 architects and 2 urban designers all working one day per week, supervised by the PEACH community organisers.
In 2017 the council began to look for a design team to lead the development of phase one of the regeneration. The impact of the Alternative Regeneration Plan led to PEACH being invited to collaborate on writing the design brief for the regeneration which would include the plan. PEACH negotiated for the a coproduction steering group to be set up comprising of elected resident and council officers. PEACH worked closely with the officers to develop plans for the coproduction steering group, trying to make sure that the coproduction process gave the community real power to make decisions.
Following the publication of the Alternative Regeneration Plan as part of the design brief, the Alternative Regeneration Project has been working on supporting the coproduction process, negotiating for a meaningful participatory regeneration and building community power around the landlord offer and resident ballot.
Regeneration Plans: Phase 1 Ballot & The Landlord Offer
In December 2022, the ballot vote for phase 1 of the regeneration plans took place. PEACH members living in the Phase 1 area were not happy with the Landlord Offer and decided they wanted to vote ‘NO’. While the Landlord Offer was much better than offers for other estates across London, thanks for the Alternative Regeneration organising by PEACH members, the offer still did not reflect the promises the Mayor made to PEACH members.
Our campaign to vote no to the ballot lost by a mere seven votes making the majority a ‘YES’ vote for demolition. PEACH members are asking: was this democracy or deceit? Despite this, we managed to pull off one of the closest regeneration ballot results ever seen. PEACH members’ voices were heard, and while we didn’t win, we sent a message loud and clear. In the weeks following, we organised a block meeting with Leslie, Throckmorton and Ethel Road and worked with journalists and other parties to document what had happened. Now the Phase 2 ballot is underway and we are hearing from PEACH members in the Phase 2 area that they too are not happy with the Landlord Offer. With these plans set to go ahead, PEACH members fear that they will be pushed out the area.
Permanent Safe Homes NOW
PEACH Housing Club relaunched in September 2023, after a 2 year break, as a regular meeting space for members across all PEACH blocks to come together, make plans and decisions about our housing campaigns, support each other with their housing issues (Member Solidarity), share knowledge and skills, news and wins, whilst getting to know each other and sharing food. In these meetings PEACH members agreed and developed a strategy for our new campaign: Permanent, Safe Homes NOW.
Safe: No more mould, damp, disrepair or overcrowding in our homes; conditions that too often are the difference between life and death.
Permanent: For Newham council to facilitate the transfer of all our temporary council tenancies to permanent, secure council tenancies. End the instability and fear of being kicked out of the community we know and love.
Now: We are demanding this happens now, we won’t wait any longer for regeneration that will push us out of our own community.
We call you to sign and share our petition. We call you to speak and post about our campaign.
We call you to share stories of unsafe housing and temporary tenancies on social media under the hashtag #PermanentSafeHomesNow and #SafeHomesNow and #KeepOurCommunityTogether
If you would like to join the Housing Organising Committee working on this, get in touch with Lorna (07512 309 560). To arrange media interviews, please contact Amber: + 44 7762801885, amber.perera@peach-e16.org.uk or contact us through social media on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook
Latest Posts
- We are winning Permanent Homes!
After 12 years, our member Belle has won a secure council tenancy! Belle is one of our longest-standing members and had been on the housing list from 2012-2024, living using housing benefits & PIP with her daughter, under the now discontinued Bond Scheme. - PEACH Open Letter to Mayor of Newham
PEACH member’s open letter to the Mayor of Newham ahead of our meeting on 15th May. - Permanent Safe Homes NOW: Our Demands
Demands: We want Safe & Permanent Homes NOW. Secure, decent, truly affordable homes NOW in Custom House and Canning Town, regardless of how long we have been here, by the end of 2025 latest. - Love Custom House Now: 2 Years In
PEACH members won a repairs and refurbishment programme across blocks because of the petition in 2021, which demanded that the Council invest in homes now, no more living … Continued - Housing Club is Back!
After a long Summer of organising, PEACH members hosted their first Housing Club meeting on 13th September 2023. It kicked off to an electric start. In this first … Continued - Custom House Ballot: Democracy or deceit?
The Custom House Phase 1 ballot results show that 47% of the residents who could vote and did vote, voted NO to the Landlord Offer. This means the … Continued - The People’s Vote – We deserve better!
With Newham Council’s regeneration plans set to demolish homes and displace the community and the ballot vote excluding hundreds of residents from participating in a decision that will change their lives (see our blog to learn more), PEACH members have taken matters into their own hands.