On 7th May, those living in Southampton and above 18yrs old will be able to vote in the local elections. I sat down with the TUSC’s (Trade Union and Socialist Coalition) Candidate for Bevois, Nadia Ditta, to ask her questions about housing, public transport, crime, community, and Gaza.
B: Tell me a bit about yourself.
N: My name is Nadia Ditta, I’m standing in Bevois for TUSC. I was born and bred in Bevois, and I still live there to this day. This is an area that is really, really special to me.
B: Why are you running?
N: I’m running because we’ve had over 60 years of Labour in Bevois. I was a Labour voter – so were my family. My father, up until the last election, had always voted Labour. But Bevois is the most deprived area of Southampton and the 3rd most in the UK [this is based on crime deprivation data from the government from 2019], and that’s the legacy Labour is leading. They don’t care. There’s no investment in Bevois.
Bevois was very special to my mum; she always refused to move because that was the solution everyone had – ‘let’s just move’ – because nothing was ever being done. But my mum refused, and that’s why I’m still living there. And I believe that the community of Bevois is amazing, and we deserve more, we deserve a better Bevois, and that’s why I am standing – to fight against the cuts, to fight against everything that Labour has done so far.
B: One of the big issues you are campaigning on is ‘No Cuts’. But even lots of Green candidates, people who align quite close to you politically, are saying that that’s not possible because the council isn’t being given the same amount of money from the government and cannot use money in the same way that a national government can. So, how would you afford no cuts?
N: Because we’ve got £120m in reserves. The problems we have don’t cost millions. Where we go wrong is stuff like the central government spending, in 2023 and 2024, £73m on the QEII Road. So, they will invest in roads, but not people? It’s not that the money’s not there, it’s that they choose not to spend it on the people of Southampton. Out of that £73m, £14m was taken out of the pot of Southampton City Council – that’s our council tax.
In Mayflower Park, there’s a monument for WW2 being built, which I’m not against, but it’s costing £3m, and when homelessness is at an 110% increase from 2024, then we have a problem. So, the cuts can be stopped if we spend the money properly. Our council spent millions on consultations outsourced to firms, and that’s what we need to stop.
So, I don’t think our money is being resourced properly, and it should be resourced properly. It’s not like we don’t have the money; we just don’t spend it. The money gets spent to make Southampton look like we’re a very good city, but it doesn’t get spent on areas such as Bevois. So, we do have the money, we just don’t spend it properly.
B: Moving on, housing is a really important issue for students. How would you improve housing in Bevois?
N: Housing has been let down because, even if you look at council housing, there are 8,000 people on the housing waiting list. I’ve had personal experience with a family member who was recently on a housing waiting list for 11 years, and that’s because we haven’t built enough properties. When we’re looking at the central government, they don’t want to invest in new properties where they’re needed. But on a local level, what we can do for the students is to introduce rent controls.
Private properties are being treated like HMOs (Houses of Multiple Occupancy), and there is no safety in these houses. There’s a huge number of students who live in the top end of Bevois; nothing is being put in place for them, there is no safety, landlords are asking for 3 or 6 months rent to be given before, and without notice, they’ll increase the rent. And I know this from talking to students.
Landlords must be registered, and I’m fighting for that in my campaign so that landlords are accountable for who they’re putting in their properties, and rent has to be controlled. That’s one of the biggest things we can do to help. But it’s also what type of house people are being given. There is mould in many of these houses – they shouldn’t be lived in – so it’s about making the landlord accountable for the type of property they’re giving to students.
That’s what we can do now, but further in the future, I know they’re building student flats, but they’re being done by private developers who charge what they like, and I think it’s extortionate, and I don’t agree with it. If there was a bigger movement, I would 100% be for it, because I don’t think students should have to be walking out of university with a degree and a £30,000 debt – that’s disgusting.
B: The Labour candidate would argue that they are tackling the issue of housing really well, such as with the passing of the Renters’ Rights Act, which, for example, would stop 3 or 6 months’ rent payments. What’s your take on that?
N: There are too many loopholes. For example, what they’re proposing isn’t immediate. These changes need to be immediate. And it’s not just about stopping a landlord from charging 3-6 months, it’s about them needing to charge less. Both things need to go hand in hand. Having a student not pay 3-6 months up-front doesn’t take away the fact that the landlord can raise their rent whenever they want. So, I don’t think it’s good enough.
I think landlords need to be scrutinised over the type of properties they’re giving, and the type of properties they are giving to students is disgusting. Students are being forced to leave student halls because they’re too expensive. My own family has done that. So, in the first year, you rely on student halls because you need to get to know the city. Then, they start looking for private properties because it will save them money, but I think private landlords are abusing this. So, if there are any rights, they need to be stricter on the landlord so that they’re fairer on the tenants and, really, there’s nothing stopping the government from introducing a cap on what students are charged because, not only are they moving to a different city, a lot of students work to fund just the basics; the maintenance loan doesn’t cover a lot for a lot of students and I don’t agree with it.
B: You want to implement rent controls. Wouldn’t that distort the market, causing economic problems?
N: No, it wouldn’t, because if you look at the profits they’re making, it would only distort the market if no profit was made. Landlords are making huge profits based on properties that nobody should be living in. There’s no fire alarm, no carbon monoxide detector, no emergency exit in a lot of the properties I’ve been in myself. So no, I don’t think it would distort the market – I think it needs to be fairer on the students and say, ‘Enough is Enough!’ because they abuse the position they are in. They’re never asked, they’re never told, so we must take action, and rent controls are one way of doing that.
B: You say that the quality of housing in Bevois is really low-quality, but how would implementing rent controls deal with that? Surely, if a landlord is getting less money, they’ll have less incentive to fix their properties?
N: But it should be improved in the first place. Nothing like that should be allowed for students. Don’t abuse their vulnerability, because that’s what’s happening. A property like that shouldn’t be in that state and shouldn’t be coming out of a student’s pocket. You can’t say, ‘Oh, have extra so you can fix it up and make it nice,’ it should be nice in the first place! So have it to a good standard and then charge your rent, and they shouldn’t be in need. If the council and the government had stricter rules in place, only allowing a certain calibre of housing to be let to students, I believe there would be no problem.
B: Would it be correct in saying you want to see more council houses?
N: Definitely.
B: So, what’s your take on the council selling off council houses that, they say, they can’t afford to repair themselves?
N: There are thousands – in Townhill Park, in Bevois not so much, but in Townhill Park I know there’s a lot – because of the cuts they’ve made, and so there’s no one to fix it, and they outsource to companies. Before, it used to all be in-house. So, you used to have painters and cleaners, but because of cuts that they’ve chosen to make, it’s too expensive to outsource. They could do it, but they choose not to. They choose where to spend their money.
B: You say you want to see money from the reserves to be used to invest in the city to deal with the inequality, but the gap between the cost of improving the council’s stock and the funding available is £75m, according to the Daily Echo. So, correct me if I’m wrong, but that is quite an inordinate cost and would wipe out the entirety of the reserves. Surely, you would then have to increase council tax, which, on your leaflet, you complain about, saying, ‘They cut services, hike council tax.’
N: Yeah, because in Labour’s latest leaflet, they’ve said they’ve got £80m available to spend on you. But £40m of that comes from raising council tax. That £75m gap should never have got so bad. That’s the problem we’re having. The central government gives a lot of money for a lot of things, but the Leader of Southampton City Council should be fighting for that. Alright, you can’t give £75m, but what can you give? How many families could you get into safe housing? I think it’s because they give up and hide behind these big, big numbers, and enough is enough, because people are starting to see through their lies! Maybe you can’t give the £75m, so give £20m. How much can you improve with that? How many families could you get into safe accommodation?
Nobody chooses to be homeless – nobody does. When it comes to domestic violence, and people flee from wherever they’re coming from, there’s nowhere for them to go. I think it’s a massive issue; it’s not something on a local level I could do anything about, but it’s something that’s very close to my heart. Nobody chooses to be homeless. Nobody chooses to go to the food banks. That’s the situation we’re in, because tough decisions, right decisions, and good economic decisions aren’t made for Southampton as a whole. So yes, I agree with the statistics that you’ve said, but that’s everything!
B: Moving away from housing now, there’s an above-average crime rate in Bevois. How would you plan to lower crime rates in Bevois?
N: I’ve lived in Bevois all my life, and I’m gonna be honest, I haven’t seen it. And I’m not lying – we’re a very close-knit community, and I’ve walked around at 1 am before, and I’ve never seen that. There is antisocial behaviour because the young have nowhere to go – there are no youth centres. When I was growing up, we had youth centres where we could go to during the school holidays, weekends, and evenings. If children don’t have that, then they get bored.
I’m not saying that explains everything, but parents can’t afford to put their children into private classes or into sports clubs – these things are a luxury nowadays. Even with two working parents, life is so hard, and I’ve had grown men crying at the door because they can’t afford to pay the rent and food, on top of having young children. So, I think if we’re talking about the young, the main issue is that we need youth centres. We need to refocus our children, like my generation was. Two years ago, £2m was sent from the central government to Southampton City Council to be spent on youth centres. After 6 months, we had to send the money back because we didn’t have any youth centres.
In Bevois, I had to fight to bring our Venni back, and they were gonna sell it. The Venni is a park that they hadn’t invested in in 14 years. I campaigned with the Socialist Party, I led 4 deputations, and on the 5th one, they said I wasn’t allowed to talk about it. But we put so much pressure on, and we were on the front page of the Daily Echo, and they restored it, and it’s used by over 600 children.
B: You say you haven’t noticed any crime, and I’m not doubting that, but on an empirical level, the police stats show…
N: It’s funny you say that because we have no police presence in Bevois at all, and that’s another thing I’m fighting for.
B: That’s interesting because lots of the candidates I’ve spoken to already have said that there is going to be a new community focused plan with the police in Bevois and Portswood.
N: Going to be – if we get elected. It’s these going to be’s.
B: This isn’t a campaign pledge, this is something that is already underway, it’s just not officially started yet.
N: Then, I welcome that. When I grew up, and I lived locally, we all had a police officer that everybody knew, and the one I knew stopped a lot of drugs because children are very vulnerable. He used to be outside the school, and we used to all be allowed to wear his hat. He was very visible, and not having any police presence has possibly led to other things, and I’m not going to deny that, but I think having a police presence is important. And if there is a plan underway, then I welcome that, I think that will be greatly appreciated within Bevois.
B: From the statistics, it’s largely petty crimes that are committed, and much of it is around drugs. There was recently a drug raid by the police, which confiscated £10,000 worth of drugs in Bevois. Lots of students want to quit drugs but feel like they don’t have the support they need to get off them. How would you like to see that support develop in Bevois and Southampton, and what would that be?
N: This all comes back to whether landlords were registered. So, we would know when and who is moving in and out of houses. I do know where the drug raid happened, but I do think it’s a good thing that happened because it lets people know that the police are doing something about it.
So, how to stop it and how to combat it is, again, police presence, landlords being registered, and landlords being accountable. I’m not saying that the landlord would know that the drugs are going on inside the house, but I think a lot of the landlords are cash-in-hand.
B: I’m just a little confused about how registering landlords would tackle drugs.
N: Because, as I say, a lot of houses are being used as HMOs. They’re not really HMOs because people are just coming in and out, coming and going, and all the landlord cares about is getting their money. I think, with them being registered, when there are issues, we can report them. Because the moment we start seeing this behaviour, we can report it. A lot of the time, when you knock on those doors, people never answer, and I would rather locals didn’t get involved, and they did call the police.
But it would be good if the landlord were registered because we could know who the house belonged to, they would have a contract, and they would know who they rented the house to. If there are strict rules in place, they will know they can’t get away with this. I know a lot of the time you can have legit contracts, and then the tenants grow weed in the loft, but I think it would go a long way with protecting the locals and the students, because we would be able to instantly know who owns the house and who lives there, which brings accountability. Hopefully, it would end the idea that Bevois is an easy area to target for their business.
B: So, are you saying that because people are going in and out of these houses for short periods of time, they are going into these houses to sell drugs?
N: It’s because lots of these houses do cash in hand, and I know this because I’ve seen it, and these houses are cheaper to rent. But because it’s cash in hand, the landlord is more likely to turn a blind eye. The landlords don’t live in this area, so they don’t care what happens. It’s people like me who live in this area who have to deal with the repercussions.
B: Forgive me, but I’m struggling to find the connection between registering landlords and reducing crime. I’m assuming you’re saying that the landlords are creating antisocial behaviour.
N: Yes.
B: And would that be reduced by less overcrowding in the houses?
N: There would be less overcrowding, they would be checking the kind of people entering the houses – you know, families are living next door – but the landlords aren’t accountable, and they don’t live in this area, so they let whoever in, and that’s how we’re getting these issues. If landlords are accountable, they will think twice about the kind of people they let into their houses, because they know they’ll be responsible. Will it get rid of all the issues? No, but a massive part of it definitely will.
B: Isn’t a principle of socialism the idea that everyone should have access to housing?
N: Absolutely
B: So, if you’re saying that this person has a history of being a bad tenant, that’s market forces preventing someone from getting housing?
N: No. There’s definitely socialism in there, but we need to look at what is in need in Bevois. I’m not saying certain people don’t deserve housing, but you mentioned one drug raid, but there were two. They were about a week apart. One of them, we closely saw.
So, even though I totally agree, how do we tackle what goes on in these houses? There needs to be some give.
I totally understand where people get into arrears. It’s not because people don’t want to pay the rent, it’s because they can’t. But as a government, there needs to be support there for these people. I even know people who have had to pay a year up front – people who are working two full-time jobs. I’m not saying they don’t all deserve housing, but what I am saying is that there is a drug problem and a problem of drug houses. I’m not saying it’s major, but that’s how I feel we can tackle this.
B: Moving on, I’ve discussed with lots of students about public transport, and there are very varying opinions on the quality of public transport in Southampton, often based on what they’re used to. What would you do to improve public transport in Southampton?
N: I know a little bit about Blue Star. The council does have an input in what the bus company charges, which never benefits the people because these bus companies only care about making profits. These private bus companies can choose where they go and what routes they take. They can refuse a route because they don’t think it’s economical enough. How can it be improved? It can be improved if it were nationalised. I do think it has gone downhill very badly since it was all privatised. I don’t see why it couldn’t be free.
B: Just based on finding the money to renationalise the buses, that would be very expensive, on top of all the investment you would like to see coming from the reserves. How would that happen?
N: I totally get that, and it would have to be on a national level anyway. But then, why are they making so much profit from us? I know fuel prices have gone up, but they can still keep their ticket prices the same. I expect that if the fuel prices keep increasing, the bus companies will increase their ticket prices.
B: They are capped at £3 by the government.
N: For now, they are. They will never affect their profit margin, just like the supermarkets after the invasion of Ukraine – prices went up, and they made a greater profit – I feel the same way about buses. More routes should be available; it shouldn’t all be about profit, but it is because that’s what privatisation is about. The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer, and that’s what we have to deal with.
B: Moving on, a big part of your platform is the genocide in Gaza. And I think a lot of people will wonder how your role as a councillor will help lessen the damage of Israel’s genocide.
N: Israel’s genocide is something very close to my heart. I think we should oppose all wars, not just the one in Gaza. I believe that to call a genocide a genocide to the people who voted you in makes a difference. Sure, you can’t go up to the Prime Minister and say, “No, you can’t”, but you can call it what it is, and hiding behind the Whip is what I don’t agree with.
What difference would I make? I come out and protest like everybody else. What a person on the council will make in terms of improving the situation in Gaza, unfortunately, I’ve realised they’ve got as much of a role as you do. I’m only fighting for a local councillor job, but why shouldn’t I call a genocide a genocide? Why should I be stopped from calling it what it is? Why should I stop my voice? Why should I stop my platform? We should have the right to protest – that should never be stopped – but what I can do is the same as what everyone else can do. We all have to stand on the right side of history.
Politically, can I make a difference as a councillor? No, probably not. But it shows the kind of person you are, and people who can’t call a genocide a genocide, you know what kind of person they are. Because if starvation doesn’t affect you, sorry, but you’re not getting my vote. I don’t want to be represented by anyone who can’t call it a genocide.
What have I learned through canvassing? We have spent all this money supporting Israel, but people are living a war inside their homes here – the cost of living, the rent, the council tax, the food, everything – everyone is living a war inside their homes in Bevois. It’s not just one person who has said it to me, so I will never be ashamed, and I will always be pro-Palestine! None of us will be free until Palestine is free! And that’s me saying that as a person, and yeah, if I can use my platform to call it a genocide and oppose the war, then I will. And if I am elected as a councillor, I will not shy away from calling it a genocide, and wherever it may be in the world, any oppression in the world, I will speak up against it. Not just Gaza but everywhere. Because that’s who I am as a person, and that’s who the Socialist Party allows me to be, and that’s what made me join the party, because they are the only party that called it a genocide from day 1. They’ve been supporting the people of Palestine for 20 years. Everyone else just jumped on the bandwagon now, and half of them still don’t call it what it is. I’m sorry, I get a bit passionate about it.
B: As a penultimate question, I think one of the strengths in Southampton and in Bevois is the strength of community. But how would you want to build community more?
N: Our community has not been invested in, in any shape or form. We’ve just been left to fend for ourselves. When you look at the streets of Bevois, all you see is fly tipping. There’s no CCTV, so we don’t know who’s fly-tipping. Landlords can put anybody in their house. We have no police presence. My fight for Bevois is for a better Bevois, because we deserve better. Why don’t we deserve the same standards as other areas? If you knock on any of these doors, someone will come out to help you. This community has always been there for one another.
I’m more gonna say homeowners, not all, and I don’t want to say the renters are causing all the problems because they’re not, but if you look inside these houses, you wouldn’t believe they’re from Bevois. What you see on the street and inside the houses – people have spent money. People have got beautiful homes and beautiful families, and two of the primaries – Maytree Infant and Nursery School, and Mount Pleasant Junior School – they get ‘Outstanding’ in the OFSTED reports. But the children have to walk over mattresses, broken glass, urine, and the smell of weed. That’s how these children have to walk to school. But we still get ‘Outstanding’ because the teachers are outstanding, the pupils are outstanding, the parents are outstanding, but do they deserve to get there like that? These are basic things that should have been sorted out. We have never had someone who cares.
B: Lastly, why should people vote for you?
N: Because I care. Because I will go out there and fight for them. Because I oppose all the cuts. I absolutely do when it comes to rent, council tax, and the needs of my community. I was born and bred there. I don’t know anything different. I’ve gone away for work a few times, but it’s home, and home isn’t just my house. Home is the people, everyone in that community; good, hard-working people. We’re good people who have been left to fend for ourselves, and I think that’s why there’s been such a big mess now. I will never give up, and I will keep going. More than anything, you’re going to elect someone with a big gob and who isn’t afraid to use it when it needs to be used. And if anybody can beat Labour in Bevois, it’s me.
If you would like to ask Nadia Ditta any further questions, you can email her here: nadiaditta786@gmail.com
You can read more interviews for Bevois on the Wessex Scene homepage.
