In 2018 our Bristol branch was contacted by two survivors of domestic violence looking for help with the unsafe, chaotic and bullying environment in their ‘safe’ house and from which they were now being evicted. The council who had cut off funding to the safe house provider nevertheless offered no support to the women affected; treating it as a normal house share rather than a commissioned service. They had no-one to turn to. Within 48 hours of meeting with our organisers a large rally of ACORN members took over the front of the Bristol City Council offices forcing the highly-paid council officers responsible to the negotiating table where they agreed to all our demands.

Fresh from our victory over TSB we started to look at what other banks were up to. In the Autumn of 2018 a news story broke, revealing NatWest had the same discriminatory mortgage terms as TSB, but this time they were actively forcing landlords to evict tenants claiming housing benefit.

We celebrated ACORN’s 4th birthday in style in May 2018 with protests and occupations of branches of TSB across the country. members complained that TSB’s mortgage terms were preventing buy-to-let landlords from renting to benefits claimants, needlessly discriminating against some of the most vulnerable in society and fanning the flames of the housing crisis.

One of the most exploitative but least visible aspects of Britain’s brutal housing crisis is the disgusting situation of landlords using their properties as a means to extract sex from desperate tenants who can’t afford the rent that landlords keep high.