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Birth of a new slum
• WE all know that Islington needs to build more social housing. But in hunting for ways to do so, Islington Council may be about to allow a disastrous building at the heart of the borough, yards from Highbury Corner.
Notting Hill Home Ownership has just applied to build 134 units of housing on the old Ford site, just behind Union Chapel. It tried last year and withdrew – it met lots of local opposition. Now it is having another go.
And to get enough housing onto the site, Notting Hill is wedging in buildings at even greater density than the original, disastrous Marquess estate in 1971, and twice the density of the new Packington estate. There will be a seven-storey monster, cramming more than 250 additional people onto this small site.
Allowing them to build social housing alone would be fine: it asks for 64 new flats for affordable housing, and 37 for social rent. That density would be just right. But, like all property developers, Notting Hill greedily wants to have its cake and eat it. So, in addition to social housing, it is cramming in 70 flats for private sale. Those, no doubt, will be sold at a handsome profit.
The result will be a development that will soon become the new slums of central Islington. The people in the social housing will be cramped in order to generate the money to pay Notting Hill’s profit on the development. If Notting Hill was a private developer, the council would never allow such cramming. Because it is part of a housing association, council officials are clamouring for the deal to be done.
This will be a problem future generations will have to live with. If you oppose it, do so quickly. Letters of objection need to be with Matthew Rosel, Islington Council, 222 Upper Street N1 1YA by December 3.
Frances McRae
Canonbury Lane, N1 |
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