Communities
The crimewave sweeping Britain? Illegal houses in multiple occupation | Aditya Chakrabortty
October 24, 2025Fan of true crime? Then this column is for you. Rather than some cold case told through yellowing newspapers and sepia photos, this one is still happening. And just wait for the plot twist! But first let me outline the key facts; your challenge is to decide who’s guilty. Our crime scene is a redbrick […]
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Don’t cut London’s affordable housing quotas, Labour MPs urge ministers and mayor
October 20, 2025Labour MPs are urging ministers and the London mayor to drop controversial plans to reduce affordable housing quotas in the capital in order to boost homebuilding. MPs have said they are concerned about the proposals being drawn up by the housing secretary, Steve Reed, and the mayor, Sadiq Khan, in response to a sudden drop […]
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Will affordable housing be the casualty as London tackles its building emergency?
October 20, 2025Sadiq Khan has known for a while that he has a problem with housebuilding in London. But last week a consultancy published figures about the scale of the problem, which prompted full-scale alarm in City Hall and Whitehall. The analysis from Molior showed that new housebuilding in the capital had collapsed. Only 40,000 homes are […]
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‘Waste is a resource, not a nuisance’: the team who will collect and use up your leftover paint
September 5, 2025It’s a rare household that does not have a rusting tin of paint sitting around in a dark cupboard somewhere. About 55m litres of paint go to waste in the UK every year, which is why one organisation is trying to create a circular paint economy by recycling it. Community RePaint is a UK-wide paint […]
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UK homelessness minister faces calls to resign over tenant eviction claims
August 7, 2025The UK homelessness minister, Rushanara Ali, is facing calls to resign after claims she evicted tenants from her east London property before increasing the rent by almost £700 a month. Four tenants who rented a four-bedroom house owned byAli were given four months’ notice in an email last November and told their lease would not […]
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BMXs, boomboxes and black eyes: growing up on Peckham housing estates in the 80s – in pictures
July 22, 2025Copner Way, North Peckham Estate, 1985 Newell says: ‘My grandmother and mother moved to the Redbridge Gardens estate, Peckham, in the early 60s when it was first built, and I was born in Peckham in 1965, where we lived until 1968. I returned permanently to London with my mother in 1976. Our first Peckham home […]
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‘A slap in the face’: Grenfell officials still working in housing eight years after fire
June 14, 2025The survivors of the Grenfell fire have condemned “a deep and bitter injustice” that many of the officials criticised in the public inquiry in connection to the tragedy have continued working in related fields. “We relive the pain every day. They are carrying on with life, careers intact, while we are still here – grieving, […]
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London residents win £550,000 compensation in cladding defects case
June 7, 2025Residents of a multistorey development in London have received £550,000 in compensation from a housing association for cladding defects in a case they hope will set a precedent for other claims. Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) and the contractor United Living have also completed large-scale works at their own cost to remedy the buildings in the […]
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Evidence shows that LTNs improve people’s lives | Letters
May 18, 2025We were dismayed to read Joseph Harker’s article (Opposing LTNs doesn’t make you a ‘culture war’ petrol-head. Just look at what happened in Lambeth, 14 May). We are a group of Lambeth residents campaigning for safer, healthier streets for everyone in our borough. Harker’s arguments simply don’t fit with either the benefits of low-traffic neighbourhoods that we see every […]
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Campaigner wins court case over festivals in south London park
May 16, 2025A campaigner who argued that music festivals held in a south London park unfairly cut off large sections of the space and made it a “mud bath” has won a court case that could result in events being banned there this summer. The Protect Brockwell Park (PBP) group, which includes the actor Mark Rylance, complained […]
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