The Save Our Homes LS26 campaign group was a grassroots tenant activist group formed in the heat of a crisis – the threat of eviction. Our campaign goals were simple:
- Prevent eviction
- Preserve our post-war homes through refurbishment
- Keep the community together
- Keep the rent affordable!
Below is a timeline of key campaign moments and achievements.
But first, to give you a bit of a sense of our community, here’s a brief introduction to a few Save Our Homes LS26 residents so you can get to know a little about their lives at the start of the campaign. (There have of course been many, many more residents who have been vital to the campaign and part of a close-knit community over the years: doing leg work behind the scenes, supporting advocacy and supporting each other)!
Cindy & John Readman
Cindy works as a teaching assistant in a local school. John is a former miner at the local Rothwell Colliery and now works in administration. Both he and Cindy have lived in the local area all of their lives and moved to the estate after a period of housing instability.
By 2017, Cindy and John had lived on Wordsworth Drive for 14 years. Their children grew up there, and their daughter, son-in-law (and now grandchildren) had recently moved into a house in nearby Rothwell. During the campaign, Cindy and John’s biggest worries about eviction were around the physical and mental health impacts of homelessness, particularly on their youngest son who still lived at home.
Hazell & Mark Field
By 2017, Hazell and Mark had lived on the estate with their son Max for nearly 12 years. They both worked for the NHS. They moved to Wordsworth Drive in search of housing security after a previous eviction. Their daughter – Jessica (this website’s editor) – didn’t grow up here but has ‘her room’ every time she visits home. Mark died suddenly from a heart attack in 2023, aged 67.
Prior to their eviction from Wordsworth Drive in 2022, Hazell and Mark loved their home and close-knit community on the estate. Hazell was deeply worried about what would happen to community togetherness if everyone was forced out and Mark was worried about how all the pets would cope with moving, including Bilbo, a stray cat he named after the nickname of a close friend who passed away in winter 2020.
Mavis & Barry Abbey
Barry is an ex-miner from the local pits and, by 2017, he and Mavis had lived on the estate for 48 years. They have seen many families come and go, and many children grow up on these streets, staying in contact with many who had moved away. New neighbours had become close friends. Even though their tenancy agreement protected their right to be rehoused by the landlord, Mavis and Barry were very worried that moving house at their age would be incredibly difficult and could worsen current health conditions.
Wendy Richardson & Woody
Wendy had lived at no. 36 Wordsworth Drive for 15 years when the planning notification first came through the door in 2017. Wendy enjoyed the peace of the estate, the nature that made its way into people’s gardens, and the fields close-by for walking Woody. Over the years, Wendy spent a lot of time – and lots of her own money – making her house and garden into a much-loved home.
Linda Elsworth
Linda is a retired administrator who, by 2017, had lived on Wordsworth Drive for three and a half years. Linda was forced to leave her prior home-of-many-decades after the landlord evicted her, as he wished to renovate the property.
She sought housing security and to be closer to friends that were virtually like family, so she moved onto Wordsworth Drive, believing it would be her “forever home”.
Susan Gould
Susan is a retired NHS worker who, by 2017, had lived on Sugar Hill Close for 11 years with her son. She had close friends in the adjoining streets and has made roots in the area. When she moved to Cardboard City, Susan thought it would be the last time she would ever have to move. Susan’s biggest worries about the then-threatened eviction and the demolition of her home were around the stress and costs of finding somewhere else to live, as rental rates are unaffordable in the rest of Oulton and Rothwell.
Timeline of key moments and achievements:
2017
September, tenants receive an impersonal leaflet through their letterboxes mixed in with junk mail. It informs them their homes – rented from investment company Pemberstone – are set to be demolished.
In October, a ‘consultation meeting’ between the landlord and locals shows the development will be a slam-dunk approval. The council advises everyone to get on the already-over-stretched council housing list. Residents plan to fight back.
Susan, Mark, Cindy (centre), Mavis and Sadie represent the campaign at Leeds City Council. In November, everyone meets to formalise the Save Our Homes LS26 Residents Actions Group. Cindy Readman, as elected Chair, then leads a residents’ deputation to Leeds City Council. Hazell Field establishes a Twitter (now X) account @SaveOurHomeLS26
Cindy gives the deputation and receives a standing ovation from all counsellors when we outline our eviction fears.
2018
Save our Homes LS26 organises a petition against the landlord’s proposals and gathers more than 2,600 signatures online and hundreds more in person. We reach out to any and all news organisations. SOH LS26 residents then features in major news outlets like The Guardian, Observer, and Financial Times.
Across the year Cindy, John, Hazell, Mark, Susan, Wendy, Mavis and other residents attend and speak at various activist housing protest marches, local events, and council meetings. Wendy sorted banners and posters for display across our streets and houses.
In March, Jessica writes op eds about the eviction threat for Homeless Reunite, and The Guardian. She sets up this website as a public record of campaign work and the estate’s history.
In April, the BBC get in touch and residents appear in a dedicated feature about our estate and campaign on BBC Newsnight.
July 2018, we set up a JustGiving fundraising page to support the campaign and, later, to fund legal assistance when we had to represent ourselves at appeal. (In the end, we raised over £10,000 from nearly 300 generous donations!).
In September, Cindy and others give Heritage Open Day visitors a tour around the estate and some houses, sharing information about the iconic post-War Airey prefabs.
2019
Cindy Readman giving a speech on the steps of Leeds Art Gallery. SOH LS26 campaigners march through the streets of Rothwell and Leeds.
In June, Cindy addresses audiences at a Justice for Grenfell protest. Across the summer, residents host fundraiser stalls at local fairs and then again invite strangers into their homes as part of the Heritage Open Days festival in September.
In October, Pemberstone’s planning application goes to Leeds Council’s plans panel and is rejected. Counsellors object on two main grounds: (i) that the proposed garden spaces were still too small to meet minimum environmental standards and (ii) that the redevelopment would break up a close-knit community with protected characteristics.
It was a great VICTORY! (For a time).
2020
Hazell and Mark decorate their house for a street party to Mary 75 years since VE Day. The COVID-19 pandemic hits; self-isolation, health issues and erratic lockdowns prevent in-person meetings, so residents continue to campaign and fundraise virtually. When restrictions lighten, neighbours socialise with distanced street gatherings – keeping spirits high.
Pemberstone appeals Leeds City Council’s rejection of their planning application, and it goes to a national level inspector who organises a virtual appeal meeting in October 2020…
2021
… which, in January 2021, we LOSE. The government inspector confirms: the demolition and mass eviction can go ahead. The inspector’s argument was that the houses were run down and the community would have to be forced out of the houses anyway for refurbishment.
SOH LS26 re-focuses attention on getting a housing association to buy the estate so the tenant community can stay together. Campaigning continues. By this point, Hazell has gathered thousands of followers on Twitter/X and has sent more than ten thousand advocacy Tweets.
In July Pemberstone propose a “Tenants Forum” to keep tenants involved of the development, as per the government inspector’s recommendations. It takes them nearly four months to get this off the ground. They request shorthold tenancy resident names to be put forward (in addition to dealing directly with regulated tenants). Pemberstone select Cindy Readman and Wendy Richardson, who keep residents updated of development progress via Facebook.
The team hoist residents up on a crane. Jan (left) and Mark (right). Photo credit: Anastasia Arsentyeva
Across this year, Leeds-local filmmaker Alfie Barker and Cosmosquare Films make an award-winning short documentary about the community’s plight: Hanging On. Filming requires residents to be strung up from cranes and literally hang by their fingertips off the edge of their homes.
2022
Cindy and John in We Are England, 2022. ITV and BBC1 feature residents in primetime television shows about the housing crisis. Pemberstone issues eviction notices and possession orders, with the first tranche demanding residents leave just before Christmas. All assured shorthold tenants are forced off the estate. Homes are boarded up in their wake. Fly-tippers and thieves take advantage of empty buildings.
SOH LS26 continue to pressure for a housing association to purchase the estate. In the summer, Jessica Field wins Red Pepper Magazine’s Dawn Foster Memorial Essay Prize for her article about this campaign and the burdens of housing activism, particularly for women.
In September, Leeds Federated Housing formally announce their purchase of the estate.
2023
Construction of the new estate begins! Leeds Fed host a groundbreaking ceremony, attended by Cindy and John, ex-miner residents including Mavis, and Chris Kitchen from the NUM. Bulldozers rev into action.
Groundbreaking ceremony. Photo by Leeds Fed. Leeds City Council then approves funding to increase the social housing portion from 14 to 30 ‘affordable rents’ (cough cough), along with another 10 for the ex-miners and 30 shared ownership. The Council also approve a Local Lettings Policy that will allow many of the estates ex-shorthold tenants to be top of the queue to return.
2024
Construction continues apace, and the new street signs are erected.
Leeds Fed and ex-miner tenants mark the completion of the first ten homes. Image: Leeds Fed Press Release Dec 2024 By winter, ex-assured shorthold tenants are finally given some information about how to apply to the council so they could have a chance of returning to the housing association houses on the estate.
In December, the ex-miners holding protected tenancy agreements are able to move into their new energy-efficient homes – just before Christmas.
2025
In March, the first four ex-Assured Shorthold Tenant households, including Cindy and John, make their way back home to Wordsworth Drive and Sugar Hill Close. Not all previous residents are able to return. People’s lives have changed a lot in the interim.
Cindy and John Readman move into their new Leeds Fed home, March 2025.
#SaveOurHomesLS26 