Elderly given a 300% rent rise for Christmas

The elderly residents of two blocks of flats in Greenwich, once owned by a charity whose patron is the Duke of York, had fondly imagined they would spend the rest of their days safe from unwelcome rent increases.

Even when the Greenwich Hospital Trust sold the two properties to a private landlord the residents were promised they would not be affected.

Today, just before Christmas, the tenants are facing rent rises of 300 per cent

One tenant, 82-year old army veteran William " Harry" Denford, is living on a pension of £180 a week - £10 short of his new weekly rent.

Apart from being much worse off, Mr Denford is angry at being forced to endure the humiliation of relying on housing benefit to pay his rent. Furthermore, he now has to travel three miles each week to pay it at Barclays Bank, when the previous managing agents used to collect it.

He said: "This is the worst Christmas ever, even worse than in the war. Some of my old friends here are not sleeping at night, and a few have already left because of the awful stress of it all. Why couldn't they just let us live our lives out in peace?"

The Greenwich Hospital Trust - founded in the 18th century for the benefit of "aged and infirm sailors", which went on to become a property-owning charity based in Westminster - sold the Greenwich flats to subsidise a private school in Norfolk. In February, 2000, trust director David Heyhoe wrote to Greenwich MP and the then housing minister Nick Raynsford, saying that the tenants' security of tenure would not be affected by the sale of the 28 flats in Reade and Travers Houses in Trafalgar Grove.

Mr Heyhoe wrote: "The tenants will, generally speaking, become either protected tenants covered by the Rent Acts . .. or assured shorthold tenants."

He also informed Mr Raynsford that the sale would be to "a socially responsible landlord".

Mr Heyhoe repeated this comment in April, when he informed Mr Raynsford that the two blocks had been sold to Bankway Properties, part of the William Pears Group.

Bankway assured Greenwich Hospital that it was "both caring and considerate" to its tenants. However, the contract of sale failed to establish clearly the status of the tenants. Bankway and their agents established that, because of the special status of the trust, the tenancies were not "protected" but "assured" - and the law allows landlords to raise "assured" rents to market levels.

In May, the tenants received notices increasing their rents on the modest two-bedroom flats from £57 to £190 a week.

A horrified Mr Raynsford sent out some sharp letters to Bankway, complaining about "exploitation of elderly and vulnerable people". In spite of his intervention, in July a Notice to Quit was sent to 76-year-old Mabel Nelson. It contained a threat to "instigate court proceedings immediately" over arrears she did not owe.

Bankway eventually apologised to Mrs Nelson.

Greenwich council tried to persuade the Hospital Trust to sell the blocks to a housing association, whose rents are controlled. Council leader Chris Roberts said: "The situation has created the impression that the Trust sees Greenwich and its people purely as a financial resource to fund activities elsewhere."

The Trust told the Evening Standard that the homes were not sold to a housing association because their bid was " unacceptably low". They declined to comment on the present situation.

A spokesman for Bankway's agents, B Bailey and Co of Ilford, said they were waiting for a Rent Assessment Panel to set the new rents in early January, adding: "The rents are fixed by the panel and their decision is entirely outside our client's control."