Camden New Journal - by RICHARD OSLEY Published: 10 May 2007
Tenants demand direct investment
COUNCIL chiefs have been accused of breaking election promises with their shock plans to sell of part of the Town Hall’s housing stock.
Tenants have repeated their demand for Camden to forget about raising cash through property sales to work with housing associations to renovate estates – insisting that councillors continue to lobby government for direct investment to cover a funding shortfall.
In council-organised workshops designed to tease out support for the fund-raising project on the grounds that Camden’s estates otherwise won’t get vital repairs, residents have instead passed motions calling on the council to continue the campaign for traditional investment.
Alan Walter, from the Defend Council Housing pressure group, said: “Both the parties in the administration said they supported the campaign for the fourth option (direct investment) when they were elected and would campaign on those lines. To come up with these new plans is just holding tenants in contempt.”
But writing in today’s New Journal, Liberal Democrat housing supremo Councillor Chris Naylor said: “We need to find a way forward and can’t wait for government to see reason while homes deteriorate further. ”