Enfield Council’s Housing Policy Will Displace Hundreds of People
March 21, 2025
Enfield Council’s plan to purchase properties in Hartlepool, Durham, and Merseyside, over 200 miles from London, will result in the displacement of low-income families where many affected households come from Somali and wider Black and Asian communities in North London. This means that families will be pulled from their schools, jobs, and support networks, with limited choice and little time to prepare.
This is not a solution to the housing crisis; it is a decision to move people out rather than improve conditions where they already live. Enfield is shifting responsibility away from the systems that caused the crisis and placing it on families who are already under pressure..
Poor and working-class residents are being made to carry the consequences of London’s broken housing market. While rents rise and affordable options disappear, councils are removing people instead of building new homes or protecting existing ones. The failure to invest locally has created a situation where displacement is treated as the only option.
In 2024, Enfield ended its legal duties to more families than any other council when they refused placements outside the area. Removing support from people who do not accept faraway housing is not care; it is abandonment
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