Cash saves Holly Lodge homes

ONE of the jewels in the crown of Camden’s social housing looks like it will be saved for future generations of council tenants after Whitehall handed over a £3.6million pot to fund renovations.
Blocks of the Holly Lodge estate’s mock-tudor flats have stood empty for years because the cash-strapped council housing department could not afford to turn bedsits into flats. There are 215 empty bedsits on the estate that date from the 1920s and were originally built to provide homes for single working women.
But Housing Minister Labour MP John Healey this week handed over the cash to renovate Makepeace Mansions and ensure that it will be used for social housing.
Grace Livingstone, of the Holly Lodge Tenants Association, said: “We have campaigned non-stop on this, and the news from the government shows funding is available.”
The work, due to start in April, was welcomed by Hampstead and Highgate Labour MP Glenda Jackson. She also called on the Town Hall’s ruling Lib Dem and Conservative coalition to stop selling off council homes. “I have long been urging ministers to use the power of government to build more affordable homes,” Ms Jackson added.
DAN CARRIER