A group of angry householders are taking on Ealing Council and seeking compensation after being dumped in rusting shipping containers on a crime-riddled estate in Acton.
The law firm Anthony Gold is acting for seven residents and former residents of Meath Court who have a claim under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, Homes & Property reveals.
"The shipping containers at Meath Court are not fit for human habitation,” says Eleanor Solomon, partner at Anthony Gold Solicitors. “They are too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, mouldy due to poor insulation and leaks and the estate as a whole is not safe," Solomon adds.
"Containers are not homes and it is degrading to be forced to live in these conditions.”
The estate of 60 stacked shipping containers was installed as temporary accommodation in 2017 and slid into degradation.
It was meant to be stop gap before being moved into a proper home, although some of these residents have been stuck in this dark and rotting corner of South Acton since its installation.
Ealing Council pledged, in an interview with Homes & Property, to relocate all residents by the end of January before dismantling the site that became a cesspit of drug dealing, drug taking, violence and prostitution.
“We will move them into hotels as a last resort if we have to.”
“Our key focus is to find the best alternative accommodation for these families and we will move them into hotels as a last resort if we have to,” said Councillor Bassam Mahfouz the Labour cabinet member for safe and genuinely affordable homes at Ealing council.
However, as of last week, just over half of the households (33 of 60) had been moved elsewhere — some to more temporary accommodation and others into "permanent social housing".
Cllr Mahfouz has made assurances that the police are patrolling on a more regular basis, former military personnel and dogs (when appropriate) are being used for security. But the remaining residents are still living a nightmare that few can comprehend.
Councillor Gary Malcolm, the Liberal Democrat leader of the opposition at Ealing council, has been campaigning to shine a spotlight on Meath Court.
“Ealing council has failed these families. I have seen drugs paraphernalia on the floor, a woman was pushed from the top floor and there was the attempted rape of a visitor. Mothers with their children see people having sex just a few metres from their front door,” he says.
“The corridors are narrow and dark, the lightning poor and come late afternoon you get a strong sense of danger.”
Malcolm is calling for a proper and transparent investigation by an independent body to stop this ever happening again.
“A woman was pushed from the top floor and there was the attempted rape of a visitor.”
Amy* lives on the “family side of the estate." These residents refer to the other side as the "crazy side" where they believe criminals, those with addiction issues and those mental health conditions are housed. This divide has been confirmed by Malcolm and Mahfouz.
Amy fled an abusive partner and spent seven months battling with Ealing Council to be rehoused in the west London borough.
Amy and her children were finally shown a two-bedroom unit at Meath Court.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes. I thought I had the wrong address,” she says.
The reality of life in Meath Court was far worse than its initial appearance. “The flat beneath us was raided by the police, they smashed the door down. It happened a lot. There was sexual activity in the bin room and the laundry rooms were turned into brothels,” says Amy.
“Crackheads” would defecate in the washing machines, she continues, so that when the residents pull their laundry out it was soiled.
Her bag was snatched as she struggled into her front door with shopping, her buggy stolen and her washing taken from off the line.
“The laundry rooms were turned into brothels.”
However, the most harrowing incident happened in the autumn, claim residents, when a woman visiting the estate was thrown from the fourth floor onto the concrete below.
“My neighbour and her children saw it happen, a group of us ran outside, she was barely breathing and one resident performed CPR on her,” says Amy.
“We think she is still a coma now but we have no other update,” she adds.
Amy has been paying £370.55 a week in rent from her housing benefit, including the service change..
This is around £1,482.20 a month and close to the average rent for the borough — £1,550pcm according to Home Views.
Mahfouz concedes shipping containers are not suitable as housing. The layout too was a problem — the external stairwells were exposed to the weather and in the winter drug dealers would migrate inside to the bin stores and laundry rooms (which are now locked).
Repair work has been slow at best, he admits.
“We have put our hands up and we are moving people as quickly as possible.”
Despite the materials and design, however, the mix of residents has been the biggest issue.
“We have a duty to rehouse vulnerable people but they have become the perpetrators of crime and anti-social behaviour and are living in the same gated community as children,” Mahfouz says.
“We have put our hands up and we are moving people as quickly as possible,” he adds.
Amy has been offered a three-bedroom flat on another failing estate that is due to be demolished in 2026 and means her children would have to change schools.
These harrowingly substandard housing conditions at are a consequence of the temporary housing emergency that has swept the capital.
Research from London Councils (the cross-party organisation of the 32 borough councils and the City of London) has revealed that one in 50 people in London are homeless or living in temporary accommodation (such as B&Bs) and one in 23 children. Ealing alone has 4,000 children in temporary accommodation.
“The danger is that sub-standard and cramped accommodation is becoming the norm.”
Between 2022 and 2023 the number of families in B&Bs for longer than the legal limit of six weeks jumped by 781 per cent – this is yet another byproduct of the wider housing affordability crisis as landlords leave the sector due to punitive taxes and rents soar.
“The temporary accommodation crisis is the latest step in something that has been developing for decades. There is fundamentally not enough housing,” says Rob Blackie, the Liberal Democrat candidate in the Mayor of London race — referring to a lack of house building at all levels, a lack of rental supply and the long-term absence of a true national house building strategy.
“The danger is that sub-standard and cramped accommodation is becoming the norm and people should not be asked to live like this.”
When approached by Homes & Property, a spokesperson for Ealing Council said: "Finding appropriate new homes for the residents of Meath Court is a top priority for us. There is an affordable housing crisis in Ealing, with a severe shortage of housing that local people on average incomes can afford, which means that sourcing suitable options is not a straightforward process."
"Some of the households that have been moved out already have been moved to permanent social housing options, while others have relocated to other temporary accommodation."
*Name has been changed
