Games Monitor: "Shame Games"

From Games Monitor:

On Tuesday 28th September (yesterday), Margaret Jaconelli was given 48 hours to leave her premises before being evicted.

Margaret has vowed to fight on for a fair deal rather than accept the risible £30,000 she has been offered for her two-bedroom tenement home. Margaret has lodged a court appeal, but in case this isn’t successful, many have pledged to support her on friday when the baillifs are due.

The media is finally beginning to take notice, and Margaret is getting her chance to speak out to a wider public. The Sun carried the story today, with Margaret responding to the £30,000 valuation:

“Where can I buy anything in Glasgow for that?

“All I’m doing is fighting for a home that my husband has worked hard for. I will appeal. I am not for giving up my home.”

BBC News also reported the story in a little more depth, though not entirely accurately (Margaret lives in a tenement, not a ‘tower block’). They quote from a statement Margaret read to the court:

“We’re being told that properties are being pulled down for regeneration but it’s more like degeneration.

“Communities have disappeared and friendships have been lost by the council pulling down large parts of the east end so that it is now reminiscent of Beirut.”

She said she was the “sole survivor of a council policy to raze Dalmarnock to the ground”.

“I’m just a wee person from the east end of Glasgow and all I’m doing is fighting for a home that my husband has worked hard for for 34 years.

“They’re stealing my property after us working so hard for it.”

She also added that she would have difficulty buying her family a “tent or an outside toilet” with the compensation the council are offering.

We totally support Margaret’s struggle for a fair deal. But this isn’t just about one individual. Large-scale regeneration companies and local authorities are increasingly aiming to use compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) to pursue property development strategies.

Running down an area makes it more profitable to invest in as land and rent prices are devalued, meaning that when new investment arrives it becomes possible to extract healthy profits from an area - especially if compensation levels are kept artificially low (or not paid at all) for those who will be displaced.

When people wonder why an area has become so run down, they rarely consider that it might be a deliberate operation of land and housing markets. The consequences of that practice are often devastating for local residents in the way of ‘regeneration’, such as the people of Dalmarnock.

Anyone wanting to support Margaret should contact:

gamesmonitor2014@googlemail.com