Demonstration Held Outside Chiswick Landlord's Offices
Group protesting Acre Properties' failure to sign no eviction pledge
Protestors outside Acre Properties on St. Alban's Avenue
|
A demonstration took place this Saturday afternoon (10 April) on St Albans Avenue in Chiswick outside the offices of Acre Properties.
The socially distanced protest was organised by the Hammersmith & Fulham Housing Action Group as part of Momentum’s national Eviction Resistance day of action to demand an end to ‘no fault’ evictions and the cancellation of all pandemic-related rent debt
The group is demanding that landlords sign a pledge not to carry out evictions and that the government legislate to extend the eviction ban. It is claimed that Acre Properties, which is owned by Alastair Kerr, has so far refused to sign a pledge ruling out evicting tenants during the pandemic.
Darran McLaughlin from Momentum’s National Coordinating Group, who was present at the protest, said, ‘We're outside the business of Alastair Kerr, who owns 330 properties. He started his property empire in the 1990s and after the 2008 economic crash, he purchased a number of ex-council places which have massively increased his property empire. Earlier this year he had an asset transfer which made him a saving of 10 million pounds this year in taxes. When the rest of the state is going through austerity, people cannot afford to live, can't afford to pay their rent, the council can't afford to provide basic public services, this guy here saved 10 million through dodgy tax dealings. And we're here to tell him we won't accept any evictions from his property empire.’
A property manager at Acre Properties said, “Our current stance is that we have not evicted anyone and have actually supported many of our tenants . No legal action has been taken to evict any of our tenants during the pandemic.
“I’d like to mention that we actively are involved in charities to help people in need. This week we housed a person in need of accommodation alongside the charity St Mongo’s.
“I am also surprised that the LBH&F haven’t been in touch with us as we have great communication with all the councils we work with.”
Find Articles Like This Useful? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
April 11, 2021
