SHAC reports on a  protest by St James Estate residents at the London Council’s Executive Meeting.

Residents from the St James Estate in South Bermondsey, and Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth (HASL) protested outside Southwark Council’s Tooley Street offices at 10:30am on Tuesday September 15th this week ahead of a Council Executive meeting.

Residents and local campaigners were united in demanding immediate enforcement against rogue corporate landlord BMR Group Ltd and property agent Freshview Estates, an end to Section 21 mass evictions, and an urgent reversal of council policies that fuel homelessness across the borough.

St James Estate is a 182-home estate in South Bermondsey built by Quality Street in the 1990s to provide affordable private rentals. Local people were placed on the estate as part of social housing schemes from the start, and residents placed there in the 1990s remain in their homes nearly 40 years later. In simple terms, the estate always should have been social housing.

Folio London (Notting Hill Genesis) sold the estate to BMR Group, which, with agent Freshview Estates, are pricing long-term tenants out through steep rent increases and Section 21 eviction notices. BMR specializes in ‘permitted development’ schemes and received a £43,000 fine from Wandsworth Council in 2025 for illegally converting homes into HMOs. Over 150 people on St James Estate are at risk of losing their homes.

Statement from the St James Tenants Association

In a statement, the  St James Tenants Association said: “We have been clear from the start that what is being done to our community is wrong. This estate should have been social housing from the beginning and although everyone in the council assures us that they see the landlord as the ‘bad guy’ in this, they refuse to act.

“We demand that our neighbours are kept in their homes and neither evicted nor de facto evicted through unaffordable rent increases. We demand that maximum enforcement action is brought against BMR for their rogue landlord behaviour. We demand that St James Estate be brought off the private market for the long term safety of the residents and the community.

“Southwark Council’s inaction has already cost our community dearly. There were measures that they could have taken months ago that would have protected people from being forced out such as an Article 4 direction, and there are things that they could do at any time like refusing to grant property licences, but they continue to offer platitudes and direct our vulnerable neighbours towards the homelessness services instead of bringing enforcement against BMR.”

Selective Licensing Failure and The Council’s Illogical Bureaucratic Loop

Campaigners are confronting Southwark Council over its flagrant failure to use statutory powers already at its disposal. Despite putting a Selective Licensing Scheme in place across South Bermondsey ward in 2023—designed specifically to ensure only “fit and proper persons” can act as landlords—Southwark Council has taken zero enforcement action against BMR Group.

Campaigners stress that the Council’s current stance makes no practical or economic sense:

• Failure to Enforce or Block Conversions: The Council has refused to introduce an Article 4 direction to restrict permitted development rights, nor has it used selective licensing to deny BMR/Freshview licences. This inaction actively enables the developer to clear out long-term residents.
  
  
• Funnelled to the Homeless Register: Instead of using enforcement powers to keep residents in their homes, Southwark Council continues to offer platitudes and direct evicted families straight towards its overstretched homelessness services. With £40m spent on temporary accommodation, last year in Southwark, this really doesn’t add up.
  
  
• Systemic Failure: Simultaneously, HASL protested outside Tooley Street over Southwark’s increasingly restrictive homelessness rules, which further restrict support for those very residents signposted to the register. With over 5,000 homes sitting empty across Southwark, the Council chooses costly emergency signposting over proactive enforcement.

The struggle on St James Estate is not about who moves into the homes; it is about corporate landlord greed exploiting state loopholes. BMR Group is forcing out long-term working families using steep rent increases and Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions to convert homes into high-yield, unlicensed Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs). Landlords intentionally target lucrative state-funded arrangements—such as Home Office placement contracts—because they pay premium rates compared to stable long-term family tenancies. 

This state-led approach amplified in the media diverts accountability away from rogue property developers and council inaction while one million homes lie empty nationwide, there are few consequences for landlords for mould or disrepairs or overcrowding. Meanwhile the government avoids rent controls, a solution that could stabilise thousands across the country. 

Urgent Demands on Southwark Council

Campaigners call on Southwark Council to immediately implement the full demands set out in the St James Tenants’ Association petition:

1. Reject Property Licences: Reject all property licence applications from BMR Group and Freshview Estates—including HMO and selective licences—on the grounds that they fail the “fit and proper person” criteria.
2. Banning Order: Seek a formal banning order preventing BMR Group from operating in the residential property sector.
   
   
3. Rogue Landlord Database: Use all enforcement powers to place BMR on the National Database of Rogue Landlords, and exclude them from all Council contracts, procurement, and housing partnerships.
   
   
4. Safety Audits & Compliance: Conduct an immediate Health & Safety audit with resident and union oversight, and enforce the removal of CCTV installed on the estate without proper ICO compliance.
   
   
5. Tenant Legal Support: Provide free, independent legal advice and support for all affected residents facing eviction or rent hikes.
   
   
6. Public Ownership: Support the TRA’s demand to take St James Estate off the private market and bring it into public ownership to secure genuinely affordable homes for the long term.

Could the Council do more? Other local authorities have acted decisively. Bradford Council used banning orders against owners of large HMO portfolios, Northampton fined an unlicensed HMO landlord over £300,000, and councils including Brent, Ealing, and Hastings regularly issue financial penalties and criminal prosecutions against rogue landlords.

The Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC) is a member-led campaign group coordinating tenants, residents, workers, and activists across the housing sector to campaign for affordable, safe, and secure homes. The blueprint is the product of a seven-month participative process involving hundreds of activists, steering groups, and volunteers, culminating in a four-phase strategic operational plan to launch the union.

Southwark Council Offices.  © Copyright Stephen Craven and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.