Organised by the London Social Forum
(flyer attached - gif file)


The Programme:

12.00 Doors Open Food and Refreshments

12.30 Key Note Panel Discussion, with:
Doreen Massey (Open University): London as Financial Hub
Ana Sugranyes (Habitat International Coalition): Social Impacts on Habitat
Sebastian Mueller (Dortmund University): Impacts of privatisation and
speculation
Fred Harrison (Land Research Trust): The Property Bubble
+ time for Open discussion

14.00 Privatisation, Development and Large-Scale Speculation
Chris Shirley Smith (Independent Water Consultant): Thames Water
Martin Slavin (Journalist): Impact of 2012 Olympics on London
Knut Unger: European global investments
+ time for Open Discussion

14.45 Workshops
- The Lea Valley, impact of the Olympics, Gentrification and Displacement
- Networking on Housing Rights and Finance

15.45 Workshops
- London Effect on Property Markets
- A Right to Land, with Dale Farm travellers, Grattan Puxon from the Roma
Federation, and Simon Fairlie (The Land is Ours/Chapter-7)

16.45 Open Forum (including):
- Introduction to Urban Watch and Mapping (Citymine(d), NodeL), L-Atlas,
Cartograhy of Resistance, Violation Database and Real Estate Corporate
Watch and Greek Initiative for the Right to the City.
- London Campaign Roundup
- The Democratic Deficit, including speakers on:
Democratic Audit (Manchester Open City) and London GLA, Sustainable
Communities Bill (Steve Shaw), Inclusive dialogue on rural inhabitants,
farmers and public lands and Perspectives from the South (Angie Balata)
and the North (Simon Fairlie)

18.30 Summing Up and Close


Synopis:
Underlying the capitalist dynamics of the global city are daily realities of precarious economic circumstance and financial indebtedness, and the social marginalisation of low-income persons and enterprises, increasingly associated with upward pressure on land values and affluence-driven development. London is a city where the divide between the beneficiaries of the financial property bubble and non-homeowners continues to widen. Here, there is an affordability crisis, where house prices increased by 47% between 2000 and 2005. The UK's tax breaks and London's financial services industry have also attracted the super-rich, which has contributed to a population growth in the city equivalent to the size of
Frankfurt in 15 years.

As a financial hub, London destabilises land, rent and value in cities and regions across Europe as it internationalises and deregulates. Social housing systems throughout the continent are under threat. In England and Wales, council housing has been slowly strangled since the 1980s by right-to-buy. Local authorities have been prevented from replacing sold homes with new ones. There are now a record 1.5m households on council waiting lists and thousands of families living in overcrowded, often dilapidated, housing. This is used to justify the potential transfer of housing stock to the private sector via housing associations or
arms-length management organisations.

The advent of the Olympics threatens widespread displacement. Regeneration
schemes appear increasingly as gentrification exercises, with limited gains, if not outright losses, for local inhabitants and businesses caught up in them. On the edge of the city, Travellers face mass evictions despite complying with government demands to buy the land they inhabit. Urban expansion plans such as those for Thames Gateway create major environmental challenges and raise sustainability issues such as the supply of water.

This forum will seek to challenge our subjugation to neo-liberal speculation. There have to be alternative ways of looking at urban problems. Through short presentations and a series of workshops, with guests from abroad, as well as campaigners in London and elsewhere in this country, we will examine the potential for power and influence over privateers and their partners, and explore the impacts of globalisation on human habitat in the capital, the London effect on international property markets and the necessities of residence, democratic deficit and resistance to global corporate finance and evictions. Join us.

The conference is free to all, but participants will be asked for a donation to help cover costs.

Transport Trains DLR Limehouse or Westferry; c2c from Barking, West Ham
and Fenchurch Street. Tube Mile End (Central, Metropolitan, District lines) and then a 277, D6, or D7 bus; or, Aldgate (Circle, Metropolitan) or Aldgate East (Metropolitan, District) and then a 15, or 115 bus. Buses 15, 115 (from Paddington station, Aldgate tube, East Ham); 395 (from Surrey Quays tube), D3 (Isle of Dogs, Bethnal Green); 277 (from Highbury and Islington tube via Dalston Junction, Mare Street and Mile End tube), D6 (from Mare Street via Bethnal Green and Mile End tube), D7 (Mile End tube and Poplar).


Other events over the weekend include:

Saturday September 30th

10.30 am-4.30 pm Friends Meeting House, Euston, London Tenants'
Federation Conference, Tenants's Vision for Housing in London (please book
in advance: , 020-7874 5464).

8pm til 10.30pm Somerstown Community Centre
150 Ossulston Street (off Euston Rd)
HOUSING IS NOT ENOUGH with Rob Inglis, artistic director of Jellicoe-Neville Performing Arts. Featuring discussion on the KX Cultural Interchange and the work of the local grassroot community re-evaluating the King's Cross development. Somalian food & refreshment.


Monday 2nd October 2006
Day of Direct Action on Housing & landrights in London, as part of World Habitat Day 2006