Campaigners from Walthamstow protested against gentrification in London at City Hall.

Protesters brought sweeping brushes to City Hall on Saturday and chanted about the working class being swept out of London because of gentrification - when housing is renovated or replaced, raising property values and displacing people on lower incomes.

Save Our Square has been campaigning against plans to build four high-rise tower blocks in Walthamstow Town Square for two years.

Members are concerned that 81 trees will be destroyed, as well as the children’s playground being moved closer to diesel pollution at the bus station.

Campaign chairman Nancy Taaffe criticised the current housing strategy in London and said that Sadiq Khan is a major advocate of allowing big property companies to build homes that young people can’t afford.

She said: “Why doesn’t he advocate for social rents and rent control? All over London people, especially working class and young people, are being driven out by new developments and high rents.”

The draft London housing strategy was released in September 2017 with the finished version due to be published later this year.

As part of the draft strategy Sadiq Khan said that he is determined to make homes affordable to Londoners.

However, the strategy said that private developers will continue to build most of London’s new homes.

Sarah Sachs-Eldridge, a Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition member who is also part of the Save Our Square campaign, expressed concerns that the London mayor is not doing enough to make homes affordable and address the housing crisis in the city.

She said: “The housing crisis in London is enormous. A London plan that would work for families and young people would be based on council housing and rent control.

“The draft London plan is about homes for sale on the open market that working-class people can’t afford to buy.

“The plan is not going to solve our problems, it is going to keep on benefitting developers that fly over London like a carcass.”

“We need resistance against all aspects of the London plan and that’s what we stand for.”

Commenting on the protests, a spokesperson for the Mayor said that the mayor welcomes figures that show that 12,526 new affordable homes were started over the last 12 months, including thousands at social rent levels.

The spokesperson added: “Sadiq is clear that while this is a positive start on the first set of homes he has funded, there is more work to be done to tackle the housing crisis in London. He remains determined to do everything in his power to build more homes for Londoners and is on track to deliver his ambition of starting 116,000 genuinely affordable homes by 2022.”