13 Comments
User's avatar
Lindsay Mackie's avatar

Astonishing digging from London Centric. Shows the absolute importance of having local news in a city like London

Andrew Shields's avatar

More brilliant work! Keep piling the pressure on.

MRAC's avatar

Jim v Aziz, round 7 — keep ‘em coming!!

Reena's avatar

Thank you for keeping the pressure and making this family accountable.

Thornton Jones's avatar

Like a terrier at his ankle. Don’t let go!

Aaaa's avatar

Thank you thank you! Despicable that they tried to pull this stunt AND profit from councils who are squeezed for cash.

John's avatar

The loop of:

- Landlords put up rent rates each year, because... Markets

- So then other landlords put up their rent (supply/regulation issue)

- People struggle, some end up need support from the council

- Councils are desperate for accomodation, and haven't built much social housing (and being sold off continuously for private gain)

- Some landlords decides it's easier to rent to the council, maybe only a bit below market rate, certainly not council rates.

- Landlords still make a chunk of change. Rents still go up annually. People and councils are desperately poor.

It's probably a bit much to say everything has to do with housing. But the massive growth in wealth inequality (less so income), could probably explained by the above. Credit to Gary's Economics for banging that particular drum.

lwright's avatar
1hEdited

If Criterion seemingly responded to the bad publicity and have now reversed it, to me that suggests it is totally out of the mayor's hands and it isn't local councils that would be funding the temporary accommodation. In which case, I bet it's going to be used as asylum dispersal accomodation

Andrew Shields's avatar

Also should have mentioned that Criterion Capital deleted public comments made by the Save the Central YMCA campaign on their LinkedIn posts. They are hyper-sensitive to this kind of criticism.

Martin's avatar

Fantastic work

Vuk Radojevic Vukovic's avatar

Jim & Team,

More tremendous journalism, up to the very highest standards. I am in awe of your tenacity, dedication and work month over month. I just maxed out my subscription - you’ll need all the support you can get against this grim cadre.

Thank you!

Chris P's avatar

Well done Jim!

Sadiq needs to answer many questions and put pressure on his friend Aziz. Otherwise, he cannot be serious for a fourth term in the office.