In the mid-1970s a group of squatters were facing eviction from a Regency building opposite Brighton’s West Pier.
Rather than face the cost and legal wrangling of the courts, the landlord signed a contract to allow the Brighton Squatters Union to stay in a derelict property in Lansdowne Place, Hove, instead.
About 20 people lived in that “licensed squat” over the next five years, many working or going to university, until it was brought back into use.
It sounds like a fireside story for wide-eyed young activists.
But tolerated, or licensed squats, could be seriously considered as a solution to the housing problems gripping the city.
The Squatters Network of Brighton – the spiritual heir to the Brighton Squatters Union – this week called for groups to be allowed to stay in houses they are occupying until the building is due to be brought back into use.
Housing needs
When The Argus approached Brighton and Hove City Council about the idea, it was not ruled out.
Councillor Bill Randall, leader of the council’s controlling Green group did condemn antisocial squatting.
He said: “We will consider all options to make use of empty homes where we can provide housing for people who whose housing needs we have not identified.
“We cannot tolerate irresponsible or destructive squatting, particularly those who use violence against council officers and others.”
Such a scheme would appear to fly in the face of the national mood. The House of Commons has approved a change in the law to make squatting a criminal offence, rather than the civil offence it is at the moment.
Mike Weatherley, Conservative MP for Hove, has been one of the most vocal supporters of that change.
He said people who had the approval of landlords to stay in a property were by definition not squatters, but said people in the most need should get help first.
He said: “The council should put empty properties back into use and give them to people on the housing list in need. They should not just allow squatters to jump the housing queue.
“Who cleans up the mess? What happens around the anti-social behaviour surrounding the squatters themselves, and what happens when they do want to bring them back into use and they have to go to court to get them out?
“I’d want the answer to those questions before I could possibly agree with that course of action.”
In recent weeks several squats have been cleared, including Ainsworth House in Wellington Road, Brighton. Some evictions have ended in confrontation.
But police believe the number of squatted properties is growing.
The Squatters Network of Brighton (SNOB) issued a statement last week claiming the council spent £161,000 in a single year on securing empty properties against trespass, not including legal fees.
It said: “To us, it seems morally wrong to leave properties empty and unused...
“So here’s our suggestion – the squatters stay on short term leases, maintaining the building through use. Then they leave when the building really is going to be demolished or redeveloped.”
Yesterday a spokesman said some groups have already struck “guardianship” deals with private landlords to stay in properties until they are filled, including in Elm Grove, Brighton.
'Watch this space'
He said the group would welcome similar negotiations with the council. “It is a case of ‘watch this space’. We are keenly awaiting what the council has to say.”
Brighton and Hove’s history of squatting goes back decades.
Socialist icon Harry Cowley – whose name is commemorated in the anarchist Cowley Club in London Road – led a post-war gang of ‘vigilantes’ who installed families in empty properties.
Other famous names included Bruno Crosby, the “king of the squatters” whose mother owned the alternative Open Café in Victoria Road, Brighton. When he died in 2002, he left half the value of his own home to Brighton Housing Trust.
There are 12,400 people on the Brighton and Hove City Council waiting list. The council says that of the 12,400, 1,254 are in high or medium need for housing.
The rest are people housed but needing an extra bedroom, of low medical need or people in the private sector in homes that are in a poor condition.
By contrast, in October, 985 homes had stood empty for six months or more, 137 owned by Brighton and Hove City Council.
The council says it brings about 150 private homes back into use every year, and is investing heavily in more.
Homeless
So could SNOB’s scheme work?
Mike Stimpson, chairman of the Southern Private Landlords Association and a Brighton and Hove landlord for 55 years, said the likes of Bruno Crosby are exceptions.
He welcomed the criminalisation of squatting and said he would not enter into a “licensed squatting” agreement. “I have had a number of squatters. Not one I have seen has been a person who is genuinely homeless.
“There is quite a difference between a homeless person who is really struggling, who has fallen on hard times, and people who think they have rights to other people’s properties.
“You realise they are people who have homes, youngsters who are rebeliing against the establishment and expect society to provide them with something.”
But Tony Greenstein, secretary of the Brighton and Hove Unemployed Workers Centre and an original resident of the Lansdowne Place squat, said the idea of licensed squats is ripe for a revival.
He said: “The housing crisis today is twice as bad. There is a need, and there are a large number of available properties.”
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