Warehouse residents fight gentrifying development that would make them homeless 

Hey guys. Can you please get someone to read out the text of the written statements at the end? I had the same difficulties with your brilliant report on the occupation outside the arms company. I'm visually impaired (functionally blind), so struggle to visually read text, and definitely can't do it at the speed that it comes up on the screen. Yes, I use assistive technology, but it's not magic. It can't read text out of image / video files with any kind of reliability, and it takes a hell of a lot of work and using several different software packages. It would be sooooo nice if there was just a voice, human or artificial, reading out that final block of text.

@@YourQueerGreatAuntie Agreed

This is very viable. The extra work is valuable and will cost you time, but you (JOE) could ask ur fans to volunteer or even stick the text in a TTS (text to speech) converter, maybe sync it with the text on screen too @@YourQueerGreatAuntie

If only they were squatters.

Mass squatting is what is needed if you ask me, and the demand that a million social housing units are built.

I think the term is custodianship?

@@Melissa.Garrett "I think the term is custodianship?" nope, they're different and has no security of tenancy either. Warehouse generally have proper leases, either commercial, live/work and sometimes just residential (although that's more rare).

£850 quid for a double bedroom… screw that,, move north

They're also pockets of fascism dressed as left-wing politics . . . and I'm left wing by the way and a resident. People can sometimes get treated very badly by cliquism, many people have mental health issues that don't get proper help and drug abuse can be quite bad sometimes, and I'm not against drugs either, just against their abuse. Suicide rates have been high but that might partly be to do with the effects of Covid long term. And even though I've just given the opposite view, I do agree they fulfil a purpose you rarely see in London.

Care to expand further on the facism aspect??

Who said the neighbourhood was grey and dreary? Haringey Green Lanes is one of the most culturally diverse areas of London. Not that you would know that by looking at this video.

polyvalent! awesome :)

It's all a falacy the conservatives propogate against anyone who seeks to do anything different. The 'middle ground' is anything but.

If they are creative they will no doubt find a creative solution. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Largely agree. But artists have always had a difficult life. Another factor is that the country is getting poorer, living standards are dropping. If you go to somewhere like India you don't see many people studying art or doing creative work. It's all computer science and business because that's what puts food on the table.

@@jamescaley9942 Yeah, because "creativity" doesn't cover a huge section of diverse skills and abilities, does it? 🙄

@@1adamuk So, no other artist should have it any easier, either, and because not so many people in India study or practice the arts, no one here should either, by your logic. 🤔 Hmm, seems legit. 🤨

Yes because British people don't need anywhere to live at all do we?

Pretty racist there. Please limit your current thing criticisms to Russia.

You forgot to add "and _never_ occupy".

Actually it's not racist it's what's happening in a lot of new builds where overseas investors buy up blocs- several- within new blocks as investments and they sit empty. IT'S CALLED LAND BANKING

@@artseosamhogriobhta big up the propaganda…by idiots.

And the cheeky comment that the development would benefit to the 'local community' and won't price out existing residents, commodify the area & eventually contribute to gentrification.

@@yeshuamusic5102 Yep, total abdication of reality, but they know they're spinning a yarn.

Estate agents are more greedy than landlords to be fair. Probably make more too

@@psytcp yeah you are correct,

Look at the freehold cost of property in London. Landlords are not a charity and i don't suppose you are either. Everyone has to be able to feed themselves including landlords.

@@Andrew-rc3vh Don't buy it mate, tennents are getting screwed all the time!

@@PaulEleftheriou-we7vr I don't think so. There are millions of landlords so the price is the market price. This has been my experience. You get what you pay for except the government rules and stuff make it more expensive. The government are in fact in the process of making renting even more costly, re green standards.

Remember that scandal with property speculator Barclay? When Jenrick was Housing Minister and went out of his way to save him on his tax bill at the expense of a local council. 😑

Labour councils and politicians have long had close ties with developers aswell and when Corbyn was in charge he did nothing about the social cleansing involving Labour councils and working class communities.

@@MutualAidWorks that's true enough - I did say "most". Power corrupts

I agree but this campaign is against this kind of compromise and worry that anyone living in flats above them will try to shut them up. Doesn't matter though, b/c the UK and many other developed countries are absolutely suffering through a housing shortage and cost of living crisis. London can't get enough housing w/o rethinking the use of every plot of land, and building extensions to the artist warehouses is really the only way to do that while preserving affordability for artists.

@@lozoft9 As I understand it they are protesting the warehouses basically being torn down and converted into luxury apartments that the hippies cannot afford. A valid concern. If the hippies resist a compromise to build around them as I suggest then they are also being assholes but that doesnt seem to be the case. These things absolutely can be done, it just requires an open minded city council, as I think we have in Amsterdam generally even if I still disagree on some stuff they are really trying radical stuff to improve the city. From what I know of London councils they are uptight dicks, that being said I only hear stories, for example of Hackney Council and Antepavilion.

Curiously, what do you think happens to any other renter when their tenancy ends?

@@jamesharper586 Homelessness.

They're already paying rent to live in these warehouses. The sort of amount that would easily allow them to get a place outside of London. I don't see a reason why they would be homeless.

@@1adamuk I hope so.

​@@1adamuk Did you even watch the video? If you did you really weren't paying attention.

I dont think it matters whether its culture or not. If this was a community of accountants with a neat little boring collective that would be jsut as nothing to them.

@@Padraigp great point. I d d on’t think accountants can afford property in London anymore but I’ll investigate

@@vomgrady if they pooled their ressources like these guys they could. Any of us could. Unfortuntely theres a concerted effort to not allow that. And government plays a big role in that too. Housing associations get land or buildings and the government has come in and compulsory purchased out from under them and then spend public money to build at a much more expensive rate and worse housing that the cooperstives themslves hahve proposed and paid for planning permission etc. THey drain them untill they have no money left to pay for more permissions or there are people like vulture funds who have ten different kind of mortgages available to them instantly who can jump in and outbid someone who might have a mortgage for a certain type of sale but not another. Its so orchestrated to tie peoples hands from owning property unless youre willing to pay over and above the odds for which you will charge over and above the odds for rent.

I don't necessarily think developers hate culture, art or whatever. It's about making money. That's it.

They already have housing they can afford, they're paying rent and council tax. This is an argument NOT to destroy existing affordable housing to build luxury developments instead.

​@@giansideros 5:13 - 6:20 I meant for the rest of us. And she literally says they couldn't afford it if it was redeveloped. Did I miss something?

A quick question, do you lump social housing in with "affordable" housing, or do you see them as separate entities?

@@giansideros Except its been proposed to have flats added as an extension to the original building and the artist spaces to be preserved. They're against that too.

Greedy developers?you mean someone wanting to do something with their land versus squatters.

​@@jamiewhogivesa2386 Squatters? It's cut rate accommodation for creatives, it's completely legitimate as was stated at the start. Even the developers at the end said it was a question of 'viability' over using their land because these people do pay rent, and the rates are the reason they're able to. The model was clearly viable for the developers in the first place so all I can see being justifiable is a rent increase in-line with inflation, but to be fair knowing property developers and landlords it'd probably be extortionate nonetheless.

​@@wastag9412i dont think jamie actually watched tbh

@@jamiewhogivesa2386 you've thoroughly embarrassed yourself here. Watch the video first before typing your crap

​@@jamiewhogivesa2386 what a pathetic comment. Shows you didn't even watch the video and just jumped to a preconceived idea in your own little head ​

Mostly? In Hoxton I'd say entirely.

What I take from this id that they are safer if we are divided, lets do more of this

No, that's you who marched for speech laws and to report neighbours. The nation is rising and you're getting the boot from the roots. Stay shook.

@@artseosamhogriobhta ?

@@artseosamhogriobhta lolwut

It's 2023, there's a housing crisis, most people are just happy to have a roof over their heads, and we should be creating more roofs for more heads. Obviously, the warehouses shouldn't be torn down, but I honestly couldn't care less that new housing is bland or whatnot, we need more homes!

Everyone pays rent, Council tax and bills here. Rent isnt even that cheap nationally, ranging from £450-£700 all in.

When developers come along throwing cash around it doesn't matter what your rights are. Look at the HS2, a railway nobody wants and people have lost their homes from it.

@@THEVL0GPOD thanks for this. I felt like Joe missed a trick by not asking those questions showing it's not just a squatter situation. If they are indeed paying the land owner rent, the council tax and also Gas/Electric & Water the developers should sod off. Its a classic example of Greed over Humanity.

Those with very limited fund’s don’t pay and that’s the problem? And not the uber wealthy who don’t pay their fair taxes, leeches income from workers and the community by legislators with “legal“ bribery? If you pay but think others “ought” to … 1. Don’t be jealous 2. Support what they’re doing so others, and possibly yourself will benefit in the future. 3. Add to a better future and not take it away because you’re not living it. You are enjoying yesterday’s future of the past. People want to forge a better life - not the same staid, boring, greedy, selfish, hateful, unsustainable, and angry mess humanity has been caught-up in across the globe. The world is literally dying and yet, there’s a small heroic group of people showing us how to survive.

@@sharongillesp I do agree. The world unfortunately for so long has been powered by greed and money. It will take a world wide change to stop this as it's so engrossing.

As an example Germany has less regional inequality than the UK and therefore less regional investment disparity, which is shocking when you consider that half of the country was a communist state until the late 80's

Germany has less regional inequality b/c it's a federal state. The various bundesländer (equivalent of US states) are allowed to do things like provide economic development incentives for companies that site jobs in their borders. If this was applied to the UK, the Scottish and Welsh gov'ts, and maybe even the historical counties of England, could do the same. Of course the UK would have to be careful not to end up like the US where so much control is given to states and municipalities that it creates a race-to-the-bottom on taxes, education, labor laws, etc.

Lol. Good one.

For every vibrant and creative unit there was another one that was bad? An arbitrary 50%? I don't think these kind of dramatised comments are going to help the overall situation... and to be honest, that illustration is not my experience of the place at all. There are far more creative things going on than are not. Did you not go to Quilt Club?

@@FourBee-xt4fp Enough for it to be a recurring problem certainly. My point is it's not as simple as warehouse communities = good. Some have problems and I saw many talented people move away because of them, then their spaces get taken by whoever will pay rent and it becomes party central. It was bad for my community and it gives the big property developers ammunition. I see this mostly as a problem with the warehouse landlords - some are great at supporting a creative community and others are not. I would like to see the latter pressured to do better. That's glossing over a lot of detail but I don't want to write an essay in a RU-vid comment. I'm very glad your experience is different to mine. No, I never heard of Quilt Club, maybe we didn't have it in Arena Design.

This is true to an extent but not sure about the percentage. Lot's of damaged people getting more damaged though for sure and sometimes not particularly healthy attitudes towards them within the culture. It's a mixed bag I'd say and if you live in a mixed bag make your choices wisely 🤔

What do you mean by autonomous?

@@lozoft9 Independent

Friggin cold in winter though

It seems there's various companies that own various warehouses around London, that all seem to be connected via papertrails. I believe they pay to Majorlink, the company thats trying to push the redevelopment

It's owned by private landlords who are working with property developers.

@@wongonat they are almost all entirely owned by the orthodox Jewish community, the same with Majorlink. It's an interesting way they do business, as in circulatory debt and loans between them within the culture. The debt moves around and is never paid off but instead stays within an enclosed system. At least that's what I heard. Would make an interesting study academically and economically.

What’s artificially lowering rents?

I mean, building more houses won’t necessarily solve the problem because we don’t have a housing shortage. Properties are just too expensive for anyone, outside the top 5% earners. We need government that will commit to regulating housing prices. Personally I don’t get why property prices aren’t being capped. How are empty, unaffordable properties helping the economy. Capping prices will at least get the money flowing. But what do I know…

@@SB-sg4em We have a shortage of housing, that’s why the prices are so high (even if all those empty expensive properties were filled). If you built more houses, that would bring prices down (assume ‘demand’ stayed constant), and that would filter down to all properties. Perhaps the government could limit the number of houses can buy as investments? Or stop that all together. Or stop non-UK investors buying UK properties. You could for sure argue that should be paused until the housing crisis is solved.

​@@yesthestone9392 there's a shortage of affordable housing. In England alone there are 675,000 empty houses of which 250,000 are classed as long term empty. Which just means 6 months or more. That's just the houses themselves to say nothing of the size of them either. Just how many people could move into these houses if only they were affordable. Just Google how many homes are empty in the UK and you see all the results

@@yesthestone9392 no, it seems most places with high rents do not have a shortage of housing. The issue is primarily that large investors hold a large percentage of available stock, meaning they can price gauge the rental market and that when they do sell they have lowered the stock available on the market, artificially increasing the property’s market value. There are many ways to deal with this but one approach would be to make owning multiple properties unappealing as an investment one way you could do this is by increasing the tax owed on every additional property an individual or investment firm owns. The other issue I have seen is that the British bank Barclay’s is now the largest landlord in Britain. This to me sounds like when film studios in Hollywood also owned the movie theaters - it’s a monopoly. Barclay’s sells mortgages so if they have a larger stake in housing than anyone else they can charge predatory mortgage rates, because it’s in their best interest as a business. Housing has become very attractive to big investors because they know it’s a necessity - i.e. it’s a captive market. Just look at what warren buffet is doing with trailer parks in the US - it’s heartbreaking and truly disgusting.

Council housing can get gentrified. Warehouse living can get gentrified. Being at the lower end of the earning spectrum makes you a target for gentrification whether it's council housing or warehouses. Anybody who lives in an area represents the area, rich or poor, and whatever culture, race or religion you come from. The divisions are somewhat false. The working class should fight as much for their homes as anyone should and I believe council housing should be preserved as much as possible. Finding the will power to do so isn't always easy no matter your council housing or warehouse.

These lot actually pay rent and council tax just so you know, warehouse homes are a thing in Haringey.

@@giansideros So how's that working out for them ?

Well, he's got a point.

@@ennbee2051 Several by the look of it

People don't trash where they live, do you?

@@colincampbell4261 people absolutely do. I’ve found someone sleeping on my property (a boat) and after just 2 nights he’d broken a panel, been spitting all over the floor, stolen from the fridge, and damaged the floor. Thats just a personal annecdote. There are plenty examples of squatters occupying a space, smashing doors and windows, ruining furniture, spray painting walls. Literally just look online for videos. The ‘Cant pay we’ll take it away’ show on channel 4 years back featured them removing some squatters from a school that got left empty for a month and they caused hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage. There is clearly 2 types of squatters, some, like this crowd, who clearly care for their surroundings, and the other, more infamous kinds who are scumbags who trash it.

​@@jonsmith5058 'My property (a boat)', there is your issue. If it is yours not ours, why should he care? 🤔 Yet he could smashed it up more, he did not. Also get lost with the 'stolen from the fridge', you mean he feed himself.

@@gHGhej excuse me? So you think its ok to just spit all over the floor of someone else and take food or drink they paid for cause we should only care about stuff that is ‘ours’? Oh and he stole beer, so get out of here with ‘feeding himself’. In that case you must be super cool with the develops metaphorically spitting all over the property of these artists. Why should they care what happens to em? Its assholes like you who think they can take whatever they want and get irrationally mad if anyone tries to recall anything you stole.

They're not squatters though, they actually pay council tax too. Look up ads for warehouse rooms in Haringey if you don't believe me. Pretty affordable if you don't mind living with 8 other people.

On the cards - developers own it along with £70m + transatlantic portfolio

Immigrants aren't buying these new developments.

​@@EYDuff wait till he hears about long term vacant residences (or "investments" as equity speculators would call it), not to mention Airbnbs, buy to let mortgages and holiday homes. Funnily enough you don't hear these lot talking about a one child policy to lower the demand either.

It's not about immgration really, it's about class at the end of the day. The system is rigged against ordinary working class people and that's why Thatcher sold off all the social housing and every government since has continued with that and not replaced it with new social housing. Thats just one problem, there are many stacked up against working class people and we need to get together, do something about it and fight back. It's the ruling class who take up far too much space, not the ordinary people (wether born here or not) who are crammed into towns and cities with not enough room and resources etc. The problem is the rich (ruling class) and their capitalist system, enforced by their state and representative so-called 'democracy.'