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Flats in Aspern Grove, Belsize Park |
The great property sell-off sinks to a new moral low
WE have accused Camden Council many times – both the present administration and its Labour predecessor – of selling off the borough’s family silver.
But auctions have come and gone, and houses and flats that once belonged to the council have gone under the hammer.
We have not been the only voice of protest – free-thinking councillors, council tenants and amenity campaigners have all joined in the fray.
There have been so many battles since the 1990s the words “family silver” have almost become a cliché.
But this week we point to what we regard as perhaps the most shameful sale of the family silver.
In the past the council has chosen either old houses that have fallen into disrepair or run-down flats in old blocks.
But this week the council – indifferent, it seems, to whatever critics may say – have gone straight for the jugular.
They are putting up for auction a block of three flats in Aspern Grove, Belsize Park built not so long ago – in fact, part of the last estate erected by the council in the late 1980s.
In the absence of help from the government, the Lib-Dem and the Tories say they need the money to pay for improvements to existing council properties. What else can we do, they complain?
Their tenants urge the council to form joint deputations and badger the government to unlock their funds. Little notice is taken of them.
Defensively, the council say all proceeds from auctions will be ring-fenced and will bring up older properties to more decent levels. But this is the tired old cry.
Matters are made worse because they plan to sell off flats that look new and will be seen as such by private bidders, anxious to get their hands on such a juicy portfolio.
Morally, the council have never sunk so low.
And what will happen to the funds raised at the auction in July?
Ring-fenced? Even if the funds are closeted in the housing account will they necessarily go on essentials? How much will be spent on unnecessary consultants?
Won’t most of the funds disappear into the black hole of finance at the Town Hall?
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