On BBC Radio London on October 28, 2010, the Conservative Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: “What we will not see, we will not accept, any kind of Kosovo-style social cleansing of London… On my watch you are not going to see thousands of families being evicted from the place they have been living and where they have put down roots. That is not what Londoners want to see and that is not what we will accept.”

But that is exactly what has happened to the 140 Sweets Way families evicted by Annington Homes last February, as Juliet Azie explained in last week’s letters column (‘Show compassion and consideration, Your Views, May 28).

The mayor’s pledge has proved to be worthless. They have been scattered to the four winds, as far as Birmingham, Luton and Chingford and all over north London, as a result of high rents and the capricious and unsympathetic approach of Barnet council, which treats them like dirt. These are families who are almost all in work and who have lost their homes through no fault of their own. Whilst the mayor says they should be able to stay in the area where they have put down roots, clearly heartless Barnet council do not share that view and the mayor will do nothing to help.

The Conservatives, whether at City Hall or in Barnet council, could not care less about blameless people like these, in desperate housing need. They have broken their promise and Sweets Way residents have suffered as a result.

Andrew Dismore AM

London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden