Activists held a protest outside the home of Barnet Council’s leader over housing policies they claim amount to "social cleansing".

Campaign group Sweets Way Resists staged the demonstration in the front garden of Conservative councillor Richard Cornelius’s Totteridge home on Saturday over the regeneration of the Sweets Way estate in Whetstone.

Tenants have been evicted from the estate, which is owned by property company Annington, during the past few months to make way for new housing to be built, with many placed in temporary accommodation across London.

Pop up tents and umbrellas labelled ‘temporary’ and ‘emergency accommodation’ were placed outside Cllr Cornelius’s home to highlight what the group says is “the precariousness that the families of Sweets Way have been forced to live with”.

Shireen Taha, who was evicted from Sweets Way in February and has been living in Enfield since with her two sons, aged 14 and 15, joined the protest.

She said: “We went to meet him (Cllr Cornelius) before at his surgery. We spoke to him, but we have been hearing the same promises for the last two months.

“We went after to do the protest to show him what it means to be in temporary accommodation. We decided to use the pop up tents and umbrellas as signs we need roofs.”

Ms Taha is due to move into a flat in Grahame Park later this month, and has been offered a non-secure contract for 12 to 24 months.

She said: “My kids are doing their GCSEs and A-levels. It means next year we are going to have to go through the same thing again.”

Annington has previously said the properties in Sweets Way have long been earmarked for demolition, and that tenants had been given ample notice.

Barnet Homes, which deals with the council’s housing stock, said in a statement in February: “Barnet Homes is working proactively to assist those households who are eligible for housing assistance and who have not turned down an offer of suitable alternative accommodation.”

Cllr Cornelius declined to comment.