Below is a video and transcript of the powerful statement read by Anthony Comber-Badu on behalf of the Aylesbury Leaseholder Action Group.

Southwark Green Party stand fully behind these words and alongside everyone fighting for fair treatment by the council.

Video credit to Southwark Council

"As leaseholders and residents of the Aylesbury estate, and we are making this public statement because Southwark Council, the developers Notting Hill Housing Association, central government and those profiting from the housing crisis would prefer that we didn’t."

Build more council housing - not unaffordable luxury flats

Temporary tenants need to be able to obtain secure tenancies rather than being shuffled about from one address to another, and so relieving Southwark Council from providing secure tenancies. Secure tenants need to be able to retain their secure tenancies, rather than losing them by being forced to change to a housing association lease.

Leaseholders demand like-for-like replacements for their flats, in the local area – so they can remain with their community, and have no increase in commute to work. They reject any invasion of their privacy with financial assessments, and financial restrictions like the £16k rule. They demand the right to transfer any mortgages at the same repayment level. They should be able to pass on their homes to their children, make alterations, and let out the property if they so wish.

Labour claim they have built 535 new council homes, while on the Heygate Estate they have already destroyed 941 council homes and they are in the process of destroying 778 council homes on the Aylesbury Estate – a total loss of 1,719 council homes. Architect Liam Hennessy says: “When it comes to social housing Southwark Labour is a total loss. The right to return’ on the Aylesbury cannot be taken seriously because the number of council homes to be demolished is 778 greater than being provided on the ‘regenerated’ estate.”

According to the most recent independent monitoring of Southwark Labour Council’s record on council homes, they built a grand total of 13 council homes in the three years 2014, 2015, 2016! (London Plan Annual Monitoring Report 2015-2016, pages 108-109)

Southwark Labour claim they will build 11,000 new council homes by 2043. At the rate of 4.33 council homes per year – from the most recent independent audit of new council homes - it will take Southwark Labour 2,540 years to build their target of 11,000 council homes!

It's Labour or Greens here

The London Borough of Southwark is divided into 23 "wards". Each ward of Southwark will have its own election on 3rd May 2018, with the top three ward candidates elected to Southwark Council as your ward councillors.

In the previous Southwark Council elections in 2014, in which the Labour Party won the Faraday seats, the Green Party came second in the ward - comfortably ahead of the third-placed Conservatives. The All People's Party, further back in fourth, pushed the Liberal Democrats into fifth place. (The All People's Party are not on the ballot paper in 2018.)

The Green Party also came second here behind the Labour Party in the 2012 and 2016 London Assembly elections, on both ballots both times.

Property company Delancey has been forced by huge local community pressure to reconsider their redevelopment offer for Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre and the London College of Communication site. 700 formal objections were lodged. Less than 4% of the proposed 1,000 homes were to be at social rent. The plans failed to meaningfully address the future of existing traders, including the large cluster of Latin American businesses. Delancey, based in the Virgin Islands (an alleged tax haven), are projected to make a profit of £154 million from the scheme.

Keep the community together, say local campaigners and Green Party

Aylesbury residents have been fighting plans from Labour-run Southwark Council to demolish their homes. The second public inquiry is due to complete in April. Across the Aylesbury, 2,700 council homes are to be destroyed. None will be built in their place. Previous experience of the Heygate demolition suggests council tenants will be rehoused in scattered locations across Southwark, losing their communities while rents may increase.

Aylesbury Estate homeowners are being hit with Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) which will force them out with payoffs much too low to buy any other property in the area or even in London. The UK Government previously recognised that Southwark’s plans breach the homeowners’ human rights.

The Walworth community is fighting to save one of the last surviving Victorian scene-painting studios, based at 'Flints' at the Queens Row. Harkers Studio housed a local business which served both the theatre industry and the wider arts community. Labour-run Southwark Council has granted planning permission to redevelop the building into flats and office space, without much consultation.