HOUSING campaigners gathered outside the world’s largest property development fair in central London today to demand an end to the sell-off of public land.

The MIPIM development summit brings global property developers, estate agents and banks together with politicians to make lucrative deals worth billions of pounds.

Protesters chanted “MIPIM, shut it down,” as most attending the summit walked hurriedly by with their heads down.

Some stood behind barriers laughing at the campaigners and one man even raised two fingers in response.

Campaigners say that the companies and politicians at the summit are directly responsible for the housing crisis and the privatisation of public land and homes.

Radical Housing Network campaigner Bill Perry said there were two major crises: the housing crisis and the climate crisis.

“They have something in common. We can’t deal with either crisis without public control over land,” he said.

“Every time they knock down a council estate, carbon emissions are released into the air and every time they build private housing more carbon emissions are released. Every time they knock down a council estate, tenancies are lost.

“It is a crime, what is happening. There has been a conscious effort over the last 30 years to take public land.

“Those who are attending here today are mostly bankers whose only interest is in profit, and councillors who were taken on expensive yachts to the coast of Nice, wined and dined and [bought] off.”

The consequences of selling off public land are severe overcrowding, record rates of homelessness and the displacement of thousands of families from their communities, campaigners warn.

Haringey Defend Council Housing’s Paul Burnham said MIPIM is a “disgraceful sellout of our land and city” for profit.

He said: “Huge private flats are being built on land where social housing is being demolished. These consist of micro flats with one or two bedrooms.

“Developers are only doing what is natural to them. The problem is the local authorities and the Greater London Authority, which say it is fine for these developments to go ahead. We have to make sure this is not the case.”

Mr Burnham said that a Labour Party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn has promised to build one million council houses in 10 years, adding that it was the only way to stop MIPIM.