Inside the estate where tenants deal with mould, floods, and stabbings – while landlord makes £100m surplus
When Erica’s daughter wants to go out to meet her friends at the cinema, she can’t just walk out of their front door like a normal 14-year-old would.
Erica Figueiredo, 42, has to escort her down the five floors of their council estate tower, ready to fend off any threats they might encounter in the stairwell. Her fears are justified, she explains, because last month eight people got into the building in balaclavas carrying knives in search of someone on their floor.
This is life on one of London’s most dilapidated and dangerous estates. A 276-flat complex, Milford Towers in Catford, was earmarked for demolition in 2012. But over a decade later, the towers are still standing with signs of deterioration everywhere.
Six out of eight of the lifts are not working, graffiti is plastered across the hallway walls, the outside doors cannot be locked and one flat has been left completely burnt out by a fire. Residents say there have been at least three stabbings on the estate in the past year, with gangs reported to attack rivals inside the complex because it’s less exposed than on the streets outside.
Housing association Notting HillFor each of the past three years, Notting Hill Genesis Group, the not-for-profit social housing provider, has had a surplus before tax of over £100m, with the highest-paid employee on a salary of £296,000.
