New housing must provide homes: “buy-to-leave” flats are forcing Londoners out of their homes

Building flats as “buy-to-leave” investments is one of the grimmest expressions of how new housing built in London can become a prized asset over a place to live.

By James Murray

(Photo By In this case new housing is not helping the crisis. It could even be making it worse. Photo: Matt Cardy/Getty)

On Monday I went along as people from across London turned out in support of long-standing tenants of the New Era estate, as they protested outside the Mayfair office of the remote US pension fund that recently bought their homes and is now threatening their eviction.

Two months ago, local residents and I argued against Boris Johnson as he handed Royal Mail shareholders a huge windfall by approving their Mount Pleasant planning application with no genuinely-affordable housing.