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Keep these fat cats out
• JUST inside Islington, between Rosebery Avenue and the Royal Mail, are conjoined blocks of social housing covered in plastic sheeting, Bideford and Barnstaple Mansions, owned by St Pancras Housing, part of the Origin group, and undergoing phased refurbishment.
A placard proudly proclaims “SPH Origin investing in social housing...” The fact of the matter, however, is that SPH Origin appears to consider these spacious (mostly two- and three-bedroomed) flats too lucrative for people needing social housing, and has disclosed (quietly by comparison with the placard) that, although many existing secure tenants will be returning, flats vacant afterwards and in future are to be let to wealthy people at open-market rents (£300-£400-plus per week).
For this, SPH must gain permission from the Housing Corporation by providing justification, which is, according to SPH, that this locality is frequented by wealthy lawyers and has “low unemployment and (low) poverty” – clearly intended to spin a yarn that there’s a reduced need for social housing in the area, which is far from the reality.
SPH insists it has to be creative because there’s no funding from government or the Housing Corporation for the work (the cost of which has escalated from £9m to £12m), the latter being prepared to fund only new builds.
Is this part of some New Labour policy for social engineering, by gradually shifting the non-affluent masses out from lucrative, central areas to new-build ghettos on the periphery of London and other major cities?
I’d like to exhort Councillor Catherine West, Councillor Terry Stacy, Islington’s executive member for housing, and MP Emily Thornberry to get together with their counterparts across London. They should grab the opportunity presented by Labour’s disastrous election results and a new Mayor, and organise a concerted campaign of aggressive lobbying for funding to ensure prime social housing remains as such or for key workers. It should not be rented at hundreds of pounds per week to fat cats seeking a nice London pad.
CG
(Name and address supplied) WC1
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