Very happy dipping my toe back in the union world - I drilled down into what today’s strike action was actually about

If you read our investigation on the restaurant that ignored more than 20 tribunal judgments & thought "how bad can it get?" then read this amazing piece by @pollysmythe.bsky.social @londoncentric.media about the systematic non-payment of wages in hospitality
www.londoncentric.media/p/is-your-co...

Is your coffee being made by an unpaid trial shifter? Plus: Kanye vs Haringey Council, curious commenters, and the new Lime bike arrives on the streets of London.

Did the person making your coffee get paid?

I looked into how working for free just to be considered for a job is becoming the new normal in the capital, as young people navigate an increasingly brutal hunt for work www.londoncentric.media/i/192962193/...

What actually happened in Clapham last week? Teenagers running riot in an M&S food hall, disorder as a form of content creation, and a global focus on 'petty' crime in London just when the mayor least wants it.

There’s been a lot written about the Clapham chaos this week. It’s probably one of the biggest global news stories about London this year. There’s a lot of emotion and speculation. So we tried to establish the facts and understand what *actually* happened. www.londoncentric.media/p/clapham-ch...

Four weeks ago I asked billionaire Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital if they'd been issuing fake electrical safety papers to their tenants.

Why? Because when we went door-to-door, we kept noticing the paperwork was curiously identical. And tenants said they'd never seen an electrician.

Little thread:

The London viral video crisis Plus: "Gulf Candy" on Oxford Street, a £4m converted chapel in north London, and we finally get answers from Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital.

London’s viral video crisis: “London has fallen” content has become so pervasive globally that Sadiq Khan held a meeting with the foreign office and British ambassadors to discuss how to convince foreign investors/tourists to ignore it and come to London. www.londoncentric.media/p/sadiq-khan...

Night ended with around 100 Reform candidates in London getting on stage with Farage (featuring pyrotechnics and earsplitting music)

The event didn’t pass without protest - both people chanting outside the venue as well as two hecklers disrupting Farage’s speech, who were met with real fury from the crowd

Reform held its London local election launch tonight in Croydon - speeches from Farage, London mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham, and the newly unveiled Croydon mayoral candidate Ben Flook

I took a trip down to Richmond to get to the bottom of the bizarre economics of temporary accommodation in London - read the piece here

Asif Aziz’s company in the Guardian, sticking to their line that sending someone a section 21 letter is not an eviction.

“More than a third of households who were sent s21 notices had moved, Criterion said: ‘These were tenant-led decisions and we have supported them – they were not evictions.’”

from a little publication to PMQs and BBC homepage in a month, London Centric stories get coverage. The issue now is whether coverage is enough for the people who are stuck in limbo at the hands of Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital despite doing nothing wrong. Government quote at end of this is telling.

Angela Rayner today decided to directly take on the “incredibly vindictive” landlord Asif Aziz over mass evictions of his tenants. She joined Croydon Labour mayoral candidate Rowenna Davis to say Aziz’s company has acted in a “disgusting and disgraceful” manner and “should not be landlords”.

Ashamed to admit it actually took me several minutes to construct that meagre little arrow …

London landlord begins evictions ahead of new renters’ rights law [FREE TO READ] Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital owns several apartment blocks in capital as well as Trocadero centre in Piccadilly

Wrote about Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital and how landlords are changing strategies - with more evictions and changes in tenancies - ahead of the Renters Rights Act.

Building on great reporting by @jim.londoncentric.media @pollysmythe.bsky.social and others as.ft.com/r/97c52505-0...

Sadiq Khan’s letter to Asif Aziz. The mayor met Asif Aziz only last week at an Aziz Foundation charitable event. A week later, Aziz isn’t responding to the mayor.

Can Sadiq Khan stop Asif Aziz's mass evictions? We went to the billionaire's home to get answers, as a leading homelessness charity cut ties with the landlord and tenants begged the mayor to save their homes.

Breaking:
*Asif Aziz's mass evictions of Londoners appear to be BACK ON
*Sadiq Khan personally demands immediate response from the landlord
*Leading homelessness charity cuts ties with the Aziz family and refuses donation
*Questions over legality of paperwork
www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

Billionaire halts mass eviction after London Centric investigation Exclusive: Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital hoped to replace hundreds of tenants with more lucrative temporary accommodation. That plan has been shelved – for now.

On Sunday, @londoncentric.media broke the story that Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital was undertaking London’s “worst mass eviction in recent history” - after our investigation, hundreds of tenants who received section 21s have now had them rescinded www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

Sadiq Khan's spokesperson on story: “It is completely unacceptable for Criterion Capital to evict hundreds of people out of their homes due to no fault of their own. The Deputy Mayor for Housing has contacted Criterion to make the Mayor’s position clear and strongly urge them to reconsider."

Thank you so much Hettie, means a lot!

Many residents I spoke to said this was a clear effort to turf them out ahead of the renters’ rights bill in May

This story began as one single tip about evictions in Colliers Wood and grew into a tale about the mass clear out of nearly all private tenants from the Aziz family’s vast property portfolio, seemingly to replace them with more profitable temporary accommodation

The billionaire philanthropist making hundreds of Londoners homeless He's the London philanthropist who says he's committed to solving homelessness. So why is Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital rushing to make hundreds of Londoners homeless in the coming weeks?

I’ve spent the last few days piecing together London’s “worst mass eviction in recent history” along with @jim.londoncentric.media. The landlord responsible? Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

This started as a single tip about one building but on a hunch we got @pollysmythe.bsky.social to chase around London and check all the Aziz family’s properties. Sometimes she got there just before the eviction notices. The scale of the clearout is enormous – and we don't think we found all of it.

Earlier this week the Aziz family stood with Sadiq Khan on stage and praised London’s community values. Now they’re conducting a sudden clearout of almost all private tenants from their vast residential property holdings, seemingly to replace them with more profitable temporary accommodation.

Who's the billionaire behind London’s biggest mass eviction? He's the London philanthropist who says he's committed to solving homelessness. So why is Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital rushing to make hundreds of Londoners homeless in the coming weeks?

London’s “worst mass eviction in recent history” is underway; hundreds of households across London told to get out of their homes this week by the same landlord, ahead of the renters rights act. The landlord? Billionaire Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital. www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

Hate-filled fake videos about London are everywhere. We've obtained a recording of a TikToker confessing to secretly filming Londoners in their homes for clicks.

He says it's not political. He just wants to make money from far-right anger.

Read what he says: www.londoncentric.media/p/london-tik...

been trying to track down Waymo's self-driving hq in London, just going to be endlessly intriguing to see how the capital copes! Could be totally second nature normal to get a robotaxi to the pub by the start of next year. www.londoncentric.media/i/185941171/...

Who's secretly filming fake TikToks inside Londoners' homes? We tracked down the viral video account invading people's houses to spread false claims about immigrants.

This is one of the strangest and most screwed-up stories I’ve worked on. www.londoncentric.media/p/tiktok-lon...

Fire on London's Loughborough Estate this morning. Seemingly now under control per @pollysmythe.bsky.social who is there on the ground, but will focus attention on an estate we've investigated wild claims of corruption and illegal chemical storage: www.londoncentric.media/p/the-london...