Members of a trades union council campaigned outside a town hall this week calling for a change in the way the housing crisis is dealt with.

Waltham Forest Trades Council turned up outside Walthamstow town hall to send the message to private housing companies that “the private sector can never fix the housing problems” in the borough.

Representatives from property development companies met with council officials for a housing summit on Wednesday September 7.

Secretary of Waltham Forest Trades Council Linda Taaffe accused some of the housing companies in attendance of “corporate greed”  and vying to profit off the backs of needy residents.

She said: “These private companies are not addressing the needs of the thousands of people registered in housing need, or even those who live in need but don’t see any point in registering.

“The market will not solve the problems. Housing is a social need. We need thousands of council homes at social rent.

“There is a terrible situation with housing in the borough.

“There are people in the most dire situations being threatened by their landlords who will turf them out our raise their rents. We need rent control.

“People are being pushed out and we are on the edge of that. The people in Hackney who have money are coming to Walthamstow and the people here will be forced to move further out.

“It is just not right.”

Mrs Taaffe, who is also working to raise the plight of young people unable to purchase homes due to rising property prices, backed the Labour leader’s pledge earlier this year to build one million social homes.

In the run up to the General Election, Jeremy Corbyn promised his party would build the homes which would be “for rent and totally affordable” if Labour won power.

Last year the trades council was instrumental in saving the tenants of Butterfields estate in Walthamstow from eviction.

One of its ongoing campaigns is to help the residents of Fred Wigg Tower in Leytonstone as it undergoes regeneration.

Mrs Taaffe added: “There’s always an issue to take up whatever it is -  one tenant, two tenants or an entire block.”