Is TfL a terrible landlord?

The man from TfL came to the garages of the Haggerston railway arches talking of Japan and of flying cars, of a future where dirty and practical businesses would be obsolete. It was 2017 and soon, all the way down the street, longstanding businesses began facing rent increases.

One of them was a taxi repair garage run by Richard Enver and his brother Hassan, which received a notice of eviction from TfL one Thursday shortly after. Accompanying it was a demand to immediately pay £36,000 in rent arrears.

Richard went over to the neighbouring business, a garage run by a man named Len Maloney, the following day. He walked up out the thin cobbled driveway, and arrived at Len’s wild-eyed and at his wits end. It didn’t look like he’d slept. “LEN, THEY CAN’T DO THAT! HOW CAN THEY DO THAT?” he screamed, pacing around Len’s small concrete garage. Two days later, he shot himself.

From £12m to £28m

Last week, The Londoner revealed that Pritesh Patel was being forced to shutter his beloved Brixton newsagent’s after 36 years in business, after TfL tripled their rent demands from £40,000 to £125,000 per year.

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He couldn’t pay it, but who could? The retail unit is now empty, and TfL have failed to secure a replacement tenant. It was heartening to see so many people sharing the story online and expressing their love for Pritesh. But buried in those messages of shock and grief at losing a familiar face in the crowd were others that signified a more weary familiarity. “TfL did this to a friend of mine too,” wrote one person. Another said: “the same thing happened to my local kiosk”.

I started to look further into Places for London (PfL), TfL’s commercial property development company. As I did so, I began to encounter the same story over and over again: of independent businesses being driven out of TfL premises, after failing to meet astronomical rent increases.