response to Evening Standard editorial on squatting.
Sir,
There are at least 20,000 squatters in England and Wales
– approximately 15,000 of them in London.The huge majority of them go out
of their way to seek out buildings that have been empty in the long term ? not
a hard task when there are some 82,000 empty homes in London, and some 1,000,000 across the UK. They live in them quietly,
without causing criminal damage or disturbance to neighbours. Your editorial on
Monday suggested that police ?need to act more firmly? to evict
squatters. Unfortunately, as a group offering legal and practical advice to
squatters across England and Wales, we too often see owners and police taking
heavy-handed ? and often illegal ? action against squatters and against
vulnerable tenants and subtenants who are simply trying to house themselves in
our very expensive city during a severe housing shortage.
Lesley Jones,
Advisory Service for Squatters