I use this page for topical issues and where residents can seek housing help

If you become homeless or need emergency help

• Lewisham Homes out-of-hours repairs team – 0800 028 2028 

• Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network - 020 8694 0323 www.lrmn.org.uk

• Thames Water emergency number – 0800 316 9800 

• British Gas emergency number – 0800 111 999
  
  If you have become homeless: 

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• Streetlink on 0300 500 0914 or https://www.streetlink.london/Streetlink_London_HomePage 

• No Second Night Out – 0870 383 3333 

• 999 Club – 0208 694 5797 

• Shelter – 0808 800 4444 

Housing: rent modelling

Lewisham average rent levels for 2019 for new social rent properties compared to the private sector

*Only a minority of new social rent and London Living Rent units will be four bedrooms or above

Why is leasehold a feudal system?

The first leasehold properties appeared in the Middle Ages to allow landowners opportunities to maximise their income. Leasehold is mentioned in the Doomsday Book. The idea, according to the Law Society, was "...to allow 'villeins' or 'serfs' to work a plot of land, for a fixed period, on the basis that they would pay 'in-kind' by providing food and services to those further up the social order, principally the land owners."

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Leasehold in the 20th and 21st centuries is used because freehold could not be applied to flats in a multi-occupancy building that is sub-divided as a separate land boundary is required to be seen on a map. 

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The lease of a person's home has become a commodity that investors can buy happily in the knowledge that they receive annual ground rents, often which double each year, profits from lease extensions, and can recover all costs from leaseholders related to maintaining the land and building they own. 

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Even Sajid Javid believes that leasehold '...is practically feudal'.