DIRECT action group Sisters Uncut occupied one of the London borough of Hackney’s many empty council flats earmarked for demolition yesterday, in protest against a lack of safe, secure housing for victims of domestic violence.

Homelessness has skyrocketed in the city, with domestic violence cited as the main reason for homelessness by one in eight applicants to local councils.

Yet a “scarcity of secure social housing” and “deep cuts” to refuge funding means survivors are regularly being turned away or housed in unsafe temporary accommodation.