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Poverty charity under fire for selling homes ‘without telling tenants’
Original Author: Rosalind Renshaw
A poverty charity is said to have sold 63 homes without telling its tenants, to a private company that has started evicting them.
Some of the homes are now up for sale with local agents, and described as good buy-to-let investments.
The allegations are carried in a story in the Guardian.
The Glasspool Trust has been criticised by Labour MP Stella Creasy for selling the homes in her constituency of Walthamstow in east London.
The Glasspool Trust was set up 75 years ago after a bequest from a wealthy businessman.
It told the Guardian that it received assurances from the new owners that no one would be evicted – although purchaser Butterfields E17 denies this.
Creasy – who is currently on a renewed mission to name and shame local estate and letting agents – said that housing is now the most pressing issue on her casework list.
Glasspool said that it helped people out of poverty by giving them direct grants.
It told the Guardian: “In order to be able to provide these grants the trustees realised that they had to sell the charity’s directly held properties to maximise the amount of money the charity could give away.
“It was a difficult decision to take but the trust was not established as a social housing provider.”
