TOWER

HAMLETS A Report on the Housing Crisis in one of London’s most expensive borough by Tower Hamlets Citizens

INTRODUCTION Tower Hamlets is experiencing a housing crisis. The Fairness Commission’s report, released in 2013, set the

scene for the housing situation in the borough:

A serious lack of affordable housing stock: the waiting list for social housing in Tower Hamlets is

23,500 households, and there are 1,500 households living in temporary accommodation after declaring

themselves as homeless to the council. There are not enough affordable homes being built.

A rising demand for new builds from overseas investors: the London property market is booming

thanks to investment in new developments from foreign investors. Thanks to the success of the

Olympics, the East End has become a desirable location for wealthy people across the world to invest in

a second or third home. Some new properties in Tower Hamlets are even being advertised in places like

China instead of being offered to local people.

Ballooning rents in the private sector: an ever-increasing demand for housing in the borough means

that landlords and lettings agents can charge what they like to people to live here, as there will always

be someone willing to pay more.

The Mayor of London’s ‘Affordable Rent’ Model: Boris Johnson has declared that all new social

housing built in London must charge rents at 80% of the market rate. This means that new social

housing will only be 20% cheaper than renting a home from a private landlord. For Tower Hamlets

residents this is not affordable and many families are forced into living in overcrowded conditions as a

result.

At the end of their report the Fairness Commission told us that is was ‘time to act’. Tower Hamlets Citizens has

taken this call seriously, and this report is the result of our work. In collaboration with the School of Geography

at Queen Mary University, Tower Hamlets Citizens conducted a survey of the community in a four week period

over March and April 2014. A team of 23 volunteers from the local community spoke to 324 households across

each different housing sector in the borough about their experiences and opinions on rent, landlords,

overcrowding and their living conditions. This report contains the findings of that survey. The results provide a

snapshot of the housing crisis in Tower Hamlets today and what this means for the people who live here.

We present the housing situation from the community’s point of view, not to feel sorry for ourselves or to

apportion blame, but to prompt our politicians to act. After each problem that we identify, we provide a

solution. This report contains several policy proposals for Tower Hamlets Council to consider adopting and

experimenting with in order to meet the needs of our community. These proposals have been formulated and

refined through conversations with academics, experts and our community. The time for talking has ended. The

time to act is now.

66%

A large part of our community live in private rented homes, but when surveyed 21% of private tenants told us

that they do not have a good relationship with their landlord. The main issues that people have with their

landlord are difficulties in contacting them and delays in responding to maintenance and repair requests.

One lady in Shadwell told us how she, her

husband and her nine year old daughter had

to shower in their neighbour’s bathrooms for

3 weeks whilst they waited for their landlord

to fix their broken boiler. This is unacceptable;

a broken boiler should be treated as an

emergency. Why should we put up with our lives being disrupted in this way because our landlord is too lazy to

take responsibility for his tenants’ safety?

Apart from long and unnecessary delays, we are also fed up with the quality of the jobs they do. One family,

from the Teviot Estate in Poplar, told us that when they asked their landlord to fix their broken cooker, he

replaced it with a second-hand model that had been used by another family before them. Once this oven broke

too, he told them that it was their own fault for ‘cooking too much’!

Another mum, from Bethnal Green, told us that the cupboards in her flat had not been sanded-down properly

and there were jagged edges coming off the doors. After asking her landlord to fix this, he came and painted

over the wood. But this didn’t fix the problem and her daughter ended up with splinters in her hands. Some

landlords and agents just don’t seem to care about the needs of their tenants and disregard our concerns

without a thought for our children’s safety.

But this assumes that they actually respond to our requests. 28% of respondents told us that their landlord or

lettings agent is not easy to contact when they need them to attend to maintenance or repair jobs. Tenants

have to call up their landlord several times just to get hold of them. This takes up a lot of our time, which we

could be spending on more important things, meaning we have to put our lives on hold whilst we wait for a

reply.

We spoke to a woman from the Collingwood Estate in Bethnal Green who told us that her landlord never

responds to her requests for repairs at her home. Time and again she has asked for leaks to be fixed and the

damp to be sorted out, but he refuses to help her and has threatened to evict her if she keeps on complaining.

In fact, when we asked people if their landlord or agent pays for repairs and maintenance at their home, 27% of

private tenants said no, they never do.

‘My landlord never responds, I have leaks and

damp in my house. He uses the law on me and

tells me that I’ll be evicted for making a big deal

out of nothing’

Mum of Three,

Private Tenant, Bethnal Green, 27.03.14

Agree with

the idea of

a Landlord

Register

‘My landlord took 3 weeks to fix our broken boiler, so my

husband, 9 year old daughter and I had to shower at our

neighbour’s homes for nearly a whole month’

Anonymous Resident,

Private Tenant, Shadwell, 06.03.14

LANDLORDS

Private tenants in Tower Hamlets are getting a raw deal, and we’ve had enough. We’ve had enough of quick

fixes, enough of waiting for weeks for a reply and enough of being bullied by landlords and lettings agents.

Something has to change.

But it isn’t just private tenants who are having problems getting their landlord to respond to their needs on

time; our neighbours in council homes and housing association properties also have complaints. We asked

people in all types of accommodation about the quality of the repair and maintenance jobs done by their

landlords. 65% of respondents from the private-rented sector were unhappy with the work done by their

landlord, but so were 60% of housing association tenants and 93% of council tenants.

On top of the delays, unresponsiveness and poor quality jobs as experienced by private tenants, council tenants

were particularly unhappy with the quality of their refurbishments done as part of the ‘Decent Homes’

programme in the borough. The standard of these refurbishments is shocking; people told us that their new

kitchen cabinets and bathroom tiling were coming off the wall within weeks of the work being finished, and

that the materials used are cheap and flimsy.

Some housing associations are no better. We have heard from residents who have complained about the lack

of respect shown to them by certain providers. It seems that whoever your landlord is, people across Tower

Hamlets are not getting the service they deserve.

So, What Do We Propose?

To solve the problem of unresponsive, threatening landlords and lettings agents who do not do their job

properly and treat their tenants with a lack of respect and duty, we propose that:

The council establish a register of all private landlords in Tower Hamlets and make it compulsory for all

landlords to have to apply for, and be granted, a licence before they can rent out their property in the

borough.

The council consult with the people of Tower Hamlets to write-up a code of conduct for all private

landlords to follow. If landlords fail to meet the standards set by this code, then their licence will be

removed.

The council provides adequate funding and resources to ensure that the register is implemented

properly by creating a new team or department to manage it. This team should be open to public

scrutiny by Tower Hamlets residents.

Housing associations also be required to follow the code of conduct if they wish to build homes in the

borough.

PERCENTAGE OF TENANTS WHO ARE UNHAPPY

WITH THE QUALITY OF REPAIRS AND MAINTENANCE DONE BY THEIR LANLORD

Of Private Tenants Of Council Tenants Of Housing Association Tenants

65% 93% 60%

‘The walls of this flat were black with mould

when we moved in. I think my boyfriend’s

lungs are rotting because of the damp air’

Female Student,

Private Tenant, Shadwell, 26.03.14

Tower Hamlets is riddled with damp. We asked people to rate the levels of damp in their home on a scale of 1 -

5, where 1 is the worst and 5 is the best. 65% of people gave their home a score of 3 or below. This borough is

fighting a never-ending battle against damp.

This problem is affecting our health. People told us how the damp

is causing their children to develop breathing problems and

allergies, like asthma and eczema. The moisture in our walls is a

breeding ground for bacteria and mould. As these grow they

release spores and fragments that fill the air inside our home.

Inhaling mould spores can provoke allergic reactions such as

sneezing and skin rashes, and bacteria acts as a medium for

spreading disease. When they go to bed, our children are breathing in this toxic air, which harms their lungs and

makes them ill.

Our kids have constantly got coughs and colds because of the damp and mould growing in our homes. This

harms their development and future prospects as they have to miss school too often because of illness,

meaning that they are persistently playing catch-up with their classmates. We know it’s not good for them to

miss so much class, but it is not our fault when bacteria and bugs breed best in our walls, and it is not fair that

our children are falling behind in life because of the damp at home.

We try to put an end to this aggravation, and every year we pay to have our damp painted over, but this does

not address the cause of the problem and is only a short-term fix. We are fighting a losing battle and sometimes

we have to admit defeat and abandon the rooms that have been affected the worst. Fatima from Poplar told us

how she had to move her whole family into one bedroom because the other room is covered in moisture and

mould. Her four kids now all sleep in one bedroom due to the damp.

So, on top of everything else, some of us are now paying rent for rooms that we can’t even use and life has

become just that bit harder as parents and children, brothers and sisters are forced into cramped conditions,

with little room for manoeuvre. Damp is not just a bit of moisture on the wall that can be painted over and

ignored. It is much more than that.

65%

OF HOMES ARE DAMP

DAMP

Resident’s Flat, Shadwell

So, What Do We Propose?

To fix the problem of damp and put an end to this constant worry, we propose that:

Tower Hamlets Council either charge a fine, or increase the amount of council tax to the owners

of ‘buy-to-leave’ properties in the borough, and use this money to pay for damp to be fixed in

people’s homes.

This money be made available to fix damp across all housing sectors through a means-tested

application process

Yet, whilst we make do with these short term fixes, hundreds of luxury flats and apartment blocks are being

built all across Tower Hamlets. Many of these are out of reach of most local residents, with some even

marketed abroad instead of to locals.

We are aware of new flats in Stepney and the Aberfeldy estate being advertised for sale to people in China

rather than to Tower Hamlets residents. These homes are nothing more than financial investments for their

owners and can remain uninhabited for years. It is not fair that the desires of overseas investors for a safe

deposit box for their money are being met before the needs of local people for decent and sanitary homes.

Why should brand new homes stand empty whilst we are living in these unhygienic conditions?

Damp: Fatima’s Story

My name is Fatima, I am a single Mum who lives in a two bedroom, private-rented flat in Poplar. I have lived in this

flat with my four children, aged 5 to 11, since 2011 when we first moved to Tower Hamlets. This flat has awful damp,

caused by the structural faults with the building. One bedroom has got so bad that the walls were dripping with

water and the carpet became saturated with liquid. I have had to abandon this room and move all of my kids into

our one remaining bedroom, where they all sleep. I have no space for a bed of my own, so I now sleep on the sofa in

the sitting room. I am paying £1,200 per month in rent, for what is now a one bedroom flat.

Three of my children have developed asthma since moving into this flat and now have to use an inhaler every

morning and night to control their breathing. I am in the Royal London so often because of my children’s asthma

attacks that the nurses in A&E know me by name.

I have asked my lettings agent to fix this problem on numerous occasions but he refuses to help me. He says that the

damp is my own fault and that the only way to fix it is to leave all the windows open 24 hours a day. But how can I

do this when I have four young children living here? I informed Environmental Health about the problem and the

declared the flat uninhabitable, yet still he refuses to fix it, and tells me that if I don’t like it then I can leave and find

somewhere else to live. But I cannot afford the deposit for another flat, so I am trapped here.

Each night, I lay awake like a zombie in a haze, constantly thinking about how to get out. I spend most nights

cooking, in the early hours of the morning; to try and get my mind off these worries- my neighbours think I’m mad. I

have lived in this country for four years since fleeing my home country, Eritrea, where the government was harassing

my husband. I now wonder why I did this. I must have been stupid. In Eritrea we have problems with the

government, but we do not live in conditions like this.

‘The kids have asthma and whooping cough because of the damp. They are constantly coughing at home’

Mum of Two, Housing Association Tenant, Marion Richardson School, 26.03.14

‘This is where they grew up. It’s their home and

they have a right not to be pushed out’

Linda, Private Tenant,

Denning Point, Whitechapel, 03.04.14

Almost two thirds of our community feel that new developments of housing in the borough are unaffordable to

their family. Many of us feel like we are being priced out of Tower Hamlets by the high cost of rent on many of

the new apartment blocks that are springing up around the borough. Only 40% of us feel certain that we will be

living at the same address in three years’ time. The rest of us fear that we may not.

This is a tragedy for our community and for our children’s future. Just 23% of us, less than a quarter of the

population, think that our children will be able to afford to start a family in Tower Hamlets when they grow up.

New developments are not meeting local people’s needs and the high rents and a lack of affordable housing

pose a major threat to the future of our families and communities.

Our children should have the right to stay in Tower Hamlets and be able to start a family of their own in the

place they call home. Tower Hamlets is where they were born and bred, it’s where their friends live and where

their family remain. If they cannot afford to stay here when they grow up, then they face being cut-off from

their support networks and thrown-out of a community where they feel safe and comfortable. How will our

children be able to raise their own family if they are isolated from their parents and friends?

With a lack of affordable homes being built in the borough, many of us are stuck on the waiting list for social

housing. Every week people bid for a property but rarely succeed. If they do get an offer it is either too small for

their family’s needs or in a place they’ve never heard of and never dreamed of going to. Paula, from Poplar, told

us that her daughter was offered a council house in Manchester, 160 miles away from her family, her friends

and her job. She rejected the offer because she, like the rest of us, doesn’t want to leave Tower Hamlets; our

lives are here and we want to stay.

We are proud to call this borough home. It is where our parents and grandparents first put down roots all those

years ago. It is home to all of the services and facilities we need: the shops, the schools, the mosque, the church.

We love the place so much that even those of

us who have had to leave, and move out to

places like Dagenham or Islington, still travel

here each day to take our kids to school.

The community here is like no other. We look out

for one another and feel safe in each other’s

company. We are diverse but we get on well

together and respect our differences. However, people are uncertain about whether they can continue to live

here because of the rising rents.

The yearly rent increases mean that people move around a lot and cannot stay in the same place for too long.

This harms our sense of community by replacing neighbours with strangers, making us feel less safe and

supported on our street. We asked people if they would like a stronger sense of community on their street or

block and 98% of respondents said yes. We want to get to know our neighbours so we can feel less isolated,

insecure and make Tower Hamlets a friendlier place to live.

61% of Tower Hamlets residents do not think that

new developments of housing in the borough are

affordable to their household

UNAFFORDABILITY

‘A stronger community would look out for its members, it would be less lonely’

Anonymous Resident,

Council Tenant, Stepney, 24.03.14

A strong community supports each other in everyday tasks and through bigger difficulties. Good neighbours

look out for our kids, help us in from the car with our shopping and support us to take a stand against nuisance

gangs and anti-social behaviour. But if we cannot put down roots then how can be build community?

So, What Do We Propose?

To make our community even stronger and allow us to continue to call Tower Hamlets home we propose that:

Tower Hamlets Council take measures to ensuring the development of more CLT homes in the borough. This

could be done by:

Negotiating with developers to ensure that a percentage of the units on all new developments are CLT

homes, and making available plots of public land for CLTs to be developed

Yes 23%

NO 43%

UNSURE

34%

DO YOU THINK YOUR

CHILDREN WILL BE ABLE TO

START A FAMILY IN TOWER

HAMLETS WHEN THEY GROW

UP?

Community Land Trusts

By 2017, Tower Hamlets will be home to the first ever urban Community Land Trust (CLT) in the country, when 23

CLT homes are built at the St Clements site in Mile End. A CLT is a non-profit organisation that develops

permanently affordable housing for the benefit of the local community

In London, it is estimated that more than half the cost of a home is the cost of the land it is sitting on. On a CLT the

community owns that land. This means that the CLT is able to remove the value of land from the cost of the

housing and sell homes for a much lower price.

At St Clements, the cost of the homes will be set according to average wages in Tower Hamlets, meaning that a

mortgage will be no more than one third of the average local income. This will ensure that local people are no

longer priced out of the neighbourhoods they grew up in and that the homes remain affordable for generations to

come.

We asked people if their rent had increased within the last year and 67% told us that it had, with just 14% saying that it hadn’t. Rents in Tower Hamlets are going up and people are feeling the pressure. 62% of the people we surveyed revealed that they are worried about making their next rent payment. Rising rents are leading to rising levels of stress for many families in the borough.

The cause of this stress is simple. Rents are going up whilst wages are staying the same or going down. This is forcing families to cut their spending on everyday items to cope. When asked how they have coped with rent increases, 35% of renters said that they have cut back on their food shopping. Parents are buying lower quality food; replacing their usual shop with supermarket value ranges and cutting down on meat, fresh fruit & vegetables. Many of our children are going to school

hungry, or starting their day with an energy drink rather than a proper meal. Parents are facing the stark choice of paying the rent or feeding their family.

Other basics that we are going without include clothes for our children and utility bills. Many of us feel guilty that we cannot provide for our children and buy them the new clothes that they desperately need. Put simply, we are embarrassed to rely on hand-outs from friends and what we can find in charity shops.

We are also embarrassed when our kids complain that they’re cold when inside. We cannot afford to leave the heating on, so we keep them warm with jumpers, tops and extra socks. We are forever going round the house making sure lights are switched off and sockets are unplugged.

On top of these most basic of necessities, people are also having to sacrifice simple pleasures. 37% of the community have cut back on days out with their children, and 50% say that they cannot go on holiday because of the cost of their rent. Days at the park may be ‘free’, but parents have got to think about the cost of the bus, ice creams and a new football- even these are becoming unaffordable.

In addition to this, many parents told us that if their rent was lower they would spend the extra money on their children’s education, paying for tuition and laptops. The schools are encouraging our children to spend more time online, meaning these computers are a necessity, not a luxury. But we just can’t afford them at the moment.

‘Most people are being priced out of Tower Hamlets. Only single people, without kids, and with a high salary can afford to live here nowadays. I can only see this getting worse in the future’ Anonymous, Owner-Occupier, Bow, 23.03.13

HIGH RENTS

‘My 6 year old daughter is always woken up when

her older sister turns the light on as she goes to bed.

Her sleep is disturbed and she is tired every

morning’

Mum of Four,

Council Tenant, Cyril Jackson Primary School, 19.03.14

The other effect of high rents in Tower Hamlets is overcrowding. 50% of the people we spoke to do not feel that they have enough bedrooms or living space to meet the needs of their family. This means that half of the borough is living in overcrowded

conditions. Overcrowding has a major impact on our lives. We spoke to a mum at Cyril Jackson Primary School in

Limehouse who shares her 2 bedroom flat with her husband and four children. Her kids all share a bedroom,

and each night, when her oldest daughter goes to bed, her 6 year old daughter is woken up by the light being

switched on. This mum went on to say that her youngest wakes up tired every morning because her sleep has

been disturbed at night. For this little girl, overcrowding means feeling exhausted at school and having less

energy to get on with her work or play with her friends.

Another mum, Rabia from Stepney, talked about the impact of overcrowding on her kids. Four of them, girls

and boys, share a bedroom, and so each morning when they get dressed they want their brothers and sisters to

leave the room. Because of this, her youngest son gets changed in the bathroom, where people have already

been showering. This boy gets changed in the wet bathroom and starts every day with damp socks. The next

chance he gets to change them is when he gets home from school at four in the afternoon. For a small child,

having wet socks is a challenge to the day before school has even begun.

For older kids this lack of space means that there is nowhere for them to do their homework. Many parents told

us that they cannot fit a desk in their homes because they have to prioritise room for beds. This leaves children

to do their homework on the floor, on their bed or at the kitchen table. Mums and Dads are worried that their

children do not have any quiet space to concentrate on their studies, and that this will harm their grades.

On top of this, children have no space to play indoors so many of them spend hours outside with their friends.

This is fine in the summer, but in the winter it is too cold to stay out for long and teenagers face being cooped

up indoors, bored and restless.

A lack of space is not good for our personal relationships and mental health. Everyone needs a space of their

own to recharge get away from the world for a while. But high rents mean that people are living on top of each

other in cramped conditions. Based on our survey, the average number of people per bedroom in Tower

Hamlets is 1.9, compared to the London average of between 0.5 and 1.

This causes problems when brothers and sisters have to

share, as both lack the privacy that they need as they grow

older and become their own person. For adults, parents feel

that they have no space of their own in their home to be

away from their children and have some ‘me time’. We have

no space to breathe.

‘My 13 year old daughter is having to sleep

in the same room as her parents, whilst her

brothers share the other room. Everybody

lacks the privacy that they deserve’

Mum of Four,

Council Tenant, Shadwell, 26.03.14

‘The cramped conditions cause me so much stress;

I cannot relax at home, I cannot rest’

Lotifa, Council Tenant,

Burdett Estate, 09/03/14

OVERCROWDING

The lack of storage space in our homes is another issue linked to overcrowding. People explained to us how

they have no space to store household items and clothes because rooms are not built for the amount of people

living there. People are making do by stacking boxes in the living room and passage, but this makes them feel

suffocated as there is no space to move. This is making us depressed and anxious, claustrophobic in our own

homes.

Overcrowding is a result of the extortionate rents being charged for homes in Tower Hamlets. Renting in the

private sector has become virtually impossible for a large section of the local community, so we pack ourselves

in like sardines into social-rented housing or sub-let our bedrooms to strangers. The waiting list for social

housing in Tower Hamlets has over 23,000 households on it, meaning that around one fifth of the borough’s

needs for truly affordable housing are not being met.

To make this situation worse, Boris Johnson has decided that all new social housing built in London should

charge rents that are 80% of the market price. He calls these ‘affordable homes’. But these are not affordable

to us. The market price for rent in this borough has been inflated way beyond the resources of most local

people due to the high demand from wealthy professionals and investors from elsewhere.

In countries like Germany it is widely accepted that people should not have to pay more than a third of their

income on rent. In Tower Hamlets action is needed to bring our rents closer to this level. We need landlords

and housing providers to start charging a ‘Living Rent’ that is no more than a third of the average income for

our community.

So, What Do We Propose?

To relieve the pressure on our budgets and allow us to provide our families with the quality of life that they deserve; to end the tragedy of overcrowding; to give us space to live a life of dignity and comfort - we propose

that:

In the Social-Rented Sector:

Tower Hamlets Council works with housing associations and other registered social landlords to calculate the cost of a ‘living rent’ for Tower Hamlets residents.

The calculation of this cost is to be based on the principle that nobody should have to pay more than one third of their income on rent.

The Council work with social landlords to develop and promote a Living Rent Model for Tower Hamlets, by accrediting providers as ‘Living Rent Providers’.

In the Private-Rented Sector:

Tower Hamlets Council encourages private landlords to become accredited as ‘Living Rent Providers’,

which would mean that they can only increase the cost of their rent by 2% above inflation each year, and that they guarantee their tenants minimum of a 2 year tenancy.

35%

OF RENTERS HAVE CUT BACK ON

FOOD SHOPPING

33%

OF RENTERS HAVE CUT BACK ON

CHILDREN’S CLOTHES

30%

OF RENTERS HAVE CUT BACK ON

GAS & ELECTRIC BILLS

VOLUNTEER RESEARCHERS ABU JAHER | AMRIT GURON |ANASTASIA | BILAL AHMED |EMDAD RAHMAN | EDOARDO PACENTI

EDWARD SZEKERES |FARHANA CHOUDHURY |FARJANA AKHTAR|HABIBA KHATUN |HENA BEGUM

JESS WALKER | LIAM HARNEY |LYDIA SIGNORE |MAHMUDA AKHTAR |RIJAN MIAH

SHAHEDA BEGUM| SARAH BEYDOUN | SAM KAMMERLING |SANDEEP LARD

TOM WEIGHTON | YUSUF ISLAM| ZINEBE MAACH

Without your commitment, dedication and effort this project never would have been possible.

WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO

QMUL SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY | For their support and assistance in making this project possible.

QMUL CENTRE FOR PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT| For funding this publication’s printing and design.

CANON BARNET PRIMARY SCHOOL | CYRIL JACKSON PRIMARY SCHOOL | SALVATION ARMY STEPNEY

ST PETER’S CHURCH BETHNAL GREEN | DARAL UMMAH MOSQUE SHADWELL | POPLAR HARCA

STEBON PRIMARY SCHOOL | MARION RICHARDSON PRIMARY SCHOOL | THE LIMEHOUSE PROJECT

OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION CHURCH BETHNAL GREEN | QUEEN MARY STUDENTS’ UNION

TOYNBEE HALL | TEESDALE & HOLLYBUSH TRA| LAWDALE PRIMARY SCHOOL

TOWER HAMLET’S PARENT & CARER COUNCIL

For your warm welcome and providing spaces in which this research could be conducted.

SEAN RICHARDSON| For designing this publication.

Tower Hamlets Citizens is an alliance of over 25 community institutions in Tower Hamlets, uniting schools, churches and

mosques to work towards the common good. We are a branch of the national community organising alliance, Citizens UK.

If you would like more information on this report or Tower Hamlets Citizens, or to discuss the issues and proposals

contained within it please contact:

Sotez Chowdhury Tower Hamlets Citizens lead organiser sotez.chowdhury@citizensuk.org.uk

Liam Harney Research coordinator and lead author of report School of Geography, Queen Mary University of London l.harney@hss13.qmul.ac.uk