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Cllr Jill Fraser: ‘Not the place’ |
'Slums' fears spark housing policy row
THE Lib Dems and Labour are locked in a furious row about
housing sparked by plans to redevelop a Victorian building in
Kentish Town.
Labour rivals have pounced on comments made by Lib Dem councillor
Jill Fraser, who has campaigned to save Lyndhurst Hall in Warden
Road. She wants the hall, sold by the council two years ago,
to become a community centre again.
The building is due to be demolished and replaced with a complex
of new homes provided by Notting Hill Housing Group.
But Cllr Fraser said more cheap homes risked turning the neighbourhood
into a “slum” with wall-to-wall social housing. She
said: “This area was a slum in the 1930s. I fear that in
2030 it will be a slum again if we do not have a mix.”
Cllr Fraser said that it would have been better to build more
affordable homes for families on the King’s Cross railway
lands in the deal struck between developers and Camden Council
earlier this month.
She added: “We already have a lot of social housing in
our area. Camden needs more homes but this is not the place
to do it.”
Labour council election candidate Mike Katz, who will take on
Cllr Fraser in the split ward of Haverstock, said the Lyndhurst
Hall project should be supported rather than opposed. He said:
“It is an insult to say the area will be a slum.
“The one thing that Camden is crying out for is more affordable
homes. We should be welcoming a scheme like that.”
Lib Dems have made council housing a prime election issue and
are taking on Labour over the way its colleagues in Whitehall
have withheld the millions of pounds needed to bring council
homes up to the government’s decent homes standards.
Mr Katz said: “It is a great inconsistency. On the one
hand the Lib Dems are saying that they believe in social housing.
On the other, they are opposing a project that will bring more
inexpensive homes to Camden, just what we need.”
Cllr Fraser said on Tuesday: “The money for council housing
was promised to Camden by the government with strings attached.
It should now be provided in direct investment immediately.”
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