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Camden homes for sale – four versus 4,000
• YOU protest about selling four homes – but did you protest at past sales of 4,000 ?
Your readers will know I am very concerned about the sale of council homes (Gone in sixty minutes... October 4) and, if this government would release the funds earmarked for us, we wouldn’t be considering sales to fund improvements. But while you take us to task for selling four homes, I wonder how many full page articles you wrote about the 4,000 homes sold or disposed of by the previous administration? And how much your readers know of this?
We got official confirmation through a recent Liberal Democrat council question of sales since 1998, when there was a Labour council in Camden and a Labour government nationally:
Year Total homes disposed of
1998/99 791
1999/00 599
2000/01 803
2001/02 719
2002/03 482
2003/04 681
2004/05 489
2005/06 156
2006/07 171
I was surprised to see these figures – as I and my colleagues are committed to a strong, positive council sector in Camden, and I expect many of your readers will be surprised too.
In five of these years more than 500 were sold each year. While many were under leaseholders’ Right to Buy, many others were homes the council chose to dispose of, for whatever reason.
But almost more upsetting is where the money went – under the rules this government operated, only 25 per cent from each sale could benefit Camden, with central government benefiting from the other 75 per cent.
But, as the limited number of Decent Homes sales we are now proposing is specifically to fund regeneration, Camden will keep the full 100 per cent for Camden’s homes and Camden’s residents.
This administration finds itself in a situation where only half our homes are up to standard – tens of thousands of tenants are waking up every day in flats that need to be rewired, where the heating is inadequate, where kitchens and bathrooms are long overdue replacement.
We are determined to get these homes up to the standard Camden tenants need and deserve – and we are continuing to search for other funding from commercial property sales, and from across the council.
I hope you will devote many full page articles to these long-overdue improvements when we start next year.
CLLR CHRIS NAYLOR
Liberal Democrat, Camden Town with Primrose Hill
Executive Member for Housing
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