A FORMER Sweets Way resident whose life was turned upside down by Barnet Council’s decision to sell the estate proudly opened a community “show-home” to the public today after 72 hours of renovation works.

Inspired by popular extreme-makeover initiatives, former residents and volunteers came together to redo one of the empty north London estate’s homes.

Mother-of-two Anna Kasperek said she felt the need to prove to the council how regeneration should be led by the community and not for profit.

The Sweets Way show-home opens today after a team of a dozen people turned a boarded-up two-bedroom house into a home with skipped materials and just £300 cash.

Ms Kasperek told the Star that a victory against the council and property developer Annington Homes would simply mean a recognition that with “a good bunch of people, local companies, recycling or upcycling stuff, we can redevelop houses by ourselves.

“That’s what we want — we want people to have houses and not pay 80 per cent of their salaries towards rent.

“When you actually do it, having a heart, having a commitment, having a committed community, then you are building strong communities that will care for the properties.”

The former resident became involved in the Sweets Way Resists campaign when she got notice to quit her home earlier this year.

Fighting for justice for the estate’s residents turned Ms Kasparek into a social activist in the space of months.

“Once you’re in, you care too much and you can’t let go,” she said with a smile.

“It’s not a singular case, Sweets Way, this stuff is going on all over London. If we don’t change anything our kids are going to be the ones who suffer.

“So I think that’s important and it’s sort of taken over my life. My little girl loves Sweets Way and absolutely adores everyone here.

“The problem is the media showing you that people who are on housing benefit are scroungers who don’t work, don’t care, drink all day — that’s not true.

“The majority of people who get housing benefit are hardworking people. The problem is they cannot afford to actually pay for the rent because the rent is so high.”

Barnet Council has previously argued that renovating Sweets Way would be too expensive.

Almost 150 homes on the estate have been earmarked for demolition.

Sweets Way Resists has occupied three of the estate’s houses, the show-home being the second of the campaign’s extreme-makeovers.

Why are you involved?

SAMIR DATHI

It’s difficult not to feel inspired by ordinary families fighting back. This is about demonstrating that these houses, even though ostensibly they are supposed to be demolished because they are not habitable, they are perfectly habitable. So we regenerate in the proper sense of the word. I live in north-west London so I guess this is the struggle that’s nearest to my house. It makes sense that this is the one I get involved in but there are 50 housing struggles going on in London.

STEPHANIE WEBBER

I’ve been involved with the Sweets Way Resists for a few months now and I just think it’s appalling what [property developers] have done here, specially come here and vandalising properties deliberately. I just think this is a great idea because it’s activism, it’s very creative and positive and it’s proving a point. I think we could do one a weekend. I live in Wandsworth but there are similarities in terms of the council — Wandsworth has been a vicious privatiser.

LUIS RODRIGUEZ

It’s my first time here but I think it’s very important to have solidarity with different people facing this situation of being displaced because of business interests. I work with a Mexico solidarity group and we are trying to build these links between the struggles back in Mexico against displacement and what’s going on here in London.